assurance, in his brief fashion, that it will be again doubled
for the succeeding years, until I enter into possession of my own
property. Still I am to refrain from visiting England until my
twenty-fifth year expires; and it is recommended that I shall
forbear all inquiries concerning my family, and so forth, for the
present.

Were it not that I recollect my poor mother in her deep widow's
weeds, with a countenance that never smiled but when she looked
on me--and then, in such wan and woful sort, as the sun when he
glances through an April cloud,--were it not, I say, that her
mild and matron-like form and countenance forbid such a
suspicion, I might think myself the son of some Indian director,
or rich citizen, who had more wealth than grace, and a handful of
hypocrisy to boot, and who was breeding up privately, and
obscurely enriching, one of whose existence he had some reason to
be ashamed. But, as I said before, I think on my mother, and am
convinced as much as of the existence of my own soul, that no
touch of shame could arise from aught in which she was
implicated. Meantime, I am wealthy, and I am alone, and why does
my friend scruple to share my wealth?

Are you not my only friend? and have you not acquired a right to
share my wealth? Answer me that, Alan Fairford. When I was
brought from the solitude of my mother's dwelling into the tumult
of the Gaits' Class at the High School--when I was mocked for my
English accent--salted with snow as a Southern--rolled in the
gutter for a Saxon pock-pudding,--who, with stout arguments and
stouter blows, stood forth my defender?--why, Alan Fairford. Who
beat me soundly when I brought the arrogance of an only son, and