ple, ever so far back, had been
Beltons of Belton. They told him that his family could be traced
back to very early days,--before the Plantagenets, as he believed,
though on this point of the subject he was very hazy in his
information,--and he liked the idea of being the man by whom the
family should be reconstructed in its glory. Worldly circumstances
had been so kind to him, that he could take up the Belton estate with
more of the prestige of wealth than had belonged to any of the owners
of the place for many years past. Should it come to pass that living
there would be desirable, he could rebuild the old house, and make
new gardens, and fit himself out with all the pleasant braveries of
a well-to-do English squire. There need be no pinching and scraping,
no question whether a carriage would be possible, no doubt as to
the prudence of preserving game. All this had given much that was
delightful to his prospects. And he had, too, been instigated by a
somewhat weak desire to emerge from that farmer's rank into which he
knew that many connected with him had supposed him to have sunk. It
was true that he farmed land that was half his own,--and that, even
at Plaistow, he was a wealthy man; but Plaistow Hall, with all its
comforts, was a farm-house; and the ambition to be more than a farmer
had been strong upon him.

But then there had been the feeling that in taking the Belton estate
he would be robbing his cousin Clara of all that should have been
hers. It must be remembered that he had not been brought up in the
belief that he would ever become the owner of Belton. All his high
ambition in that matter had originated with the wretched death of
Clara's brother. Could he bring himself to take it all with pleasure,
seeing that it came to him by so sad a chance,--by a catastrophe so
deplorable? When he would think of this, his mind would revolt from
its own desires, and he would declare to himself that his inheritance
would come to him with a stain of blood upon it. He, indeed, would
have been guiltless; but how could he take his pleasure in the shades
of Belton without thinking of the tragedy which had given him the
property? Such had been the thoughts and desires, mixed in their
nature and militating against each other, which had induced him to
offer his first visit to his cousin's house. We know what was the
effect of that visit, and by what pleasant scheme he had endeavoured
to overcome all his difficulties, and so to b