"Letters! Literature!" exclaimed the statesman. "Beggary! No, no,
Harley, this is your absurd romance."

"It will not be beggary, and it is not my romance: it is the boy's.
Leave him alone, he is my care and my charge henceforth. He is of her
blood, and I said that he had HER eyes."

"But you are going abroad; let me know where he is; I will watch over
him."

"And unsettle a right ambition for a wrong one? No, you shall know
nothing of him till he can proclaim himself. I think that day will
come."

Audley mused a moment, and then said, "Well, perhaps you are right.
After all, as you say, independence is a great blessing, and my ambition
has not rendered myself the better or the happier."

"Yet, my poor Audley, you ask me to be ambitious."

"I only wish you to be consoled," cried Egerton, with passion.

"I will try to be so; and by the help of a milder remedy than yours.
I said that my adventure might influence my future; it brought me
acquainted not only with the young man I speak of, but the most winning,
affectionate child,--a girl."

"Is this child an Avenel too?"