ld
Mr. Lofton this was a serious blow. In Mark he had hoped to see
realized some of his ambitious desires. His daughter Jenny had been
happy in her marriage, but the union never gave him much
satisfaction. She was to have been the wife of one more
distinguished than a mere plodding money-making merchant.

Painful was the shock that accompanied the prostration of old Mr.
Lofton's ambitious hopes touching his grandson, of whom he had
always been exceedingly fond. To him he had intended leaving the
bulk of his property when he died. But now anger and resentment
arose in his mind against him as unworthy such a preference, and in
the warmth of a moment's impulse, he corrected his will and cut him
off with a dollar. This was no sooner done than better emotions
stirred in the old man's bosom, and he regretted the hasty act; but
pride of consistency prevented his recalling it.

From that time old Mr. Lofton broke down rapidly. In six months he
seemed to have added ten years to his life. During that period no
news had come from Mark; who was not only angry with both his father
and grandfather, but felt that in doing what he had done, he had
offended them beyond the hope of forgiveness. He, therefore, having
taken a rash step, moved on in the way he had chosen, in a spirit of
recklessness and defiance. The ties of blood which had bound him to
his home were broken; the world was all before him, and he must make
his way in it alone. The life of a common sailor in a government
ship he found to be something different from what he had imagined,
when, acting under a momentary excitement, he was so mad as to
enlist in the service. Unused to work or ready obedience, he soon
discovered that his life was to be one not only of bodily toil,
pushed sometimes to the extreme of fatigue, but one of the most
perfect subordination to the will of others, under pain of corporeal
punishment. The first insolent word of authority passed to him by a
new fledged midshipman, his junior by at least three years, stung
him so deeply that it was only by a most violent effort that he
could master the impulse that prompted him to seize and throw him
overboard. He did not regret this successful effort at self-control,
when, a few hours afterwards, he was compelled to witness the
punishment of the cat inflicted on a sailor for the offence of
insolence to an officer. The sight of the poor man, writhing under
tile brutality of the lash, made an impression on him