are too like your mother, whose memory is
anything but agreeable."

The blood mounted to my forehead at this cruel observation; I folded my
arms and looked my father steadfastly in the face, but made no reply.
The choler of the gentleman was raised.

"It appears that I have found a most dutiful son."

I was about to make an angry answer, when I recollected myself, and I
courteously replied, "My dear general, depend upon it that your son will
always be ready to pay duty to whom duty is due; but excuse me, in the
agitation of this meeting you have forgotten those little attentions
which courtesy demands; with your permission I will take a chair, and
then we may converse more at our ease. I hope your leg is better."

I said this with the blandest voice and the most studied politeness, and
drawing a chair towards the table, I took my seat; as I expected, it put
my honoured father in a tremendous rage.

"If this is a specimen, sir, of your duty and respect, sir, I hope to
see no more of them. To whom your duty is due, sir!--and pray to whom
is it due, sir, if not to the author of your existence?" cried the
general, striking the table before him with his enormous fist, so as to
make the ink fly out of the stand some inches high and bespatter the
papers near it.

"My dear father, you are perfectly correct: duty, as you say, is due to
the author of our existence. If I recollect right, the commandment says,
'Honour your father and your mother;' but at the same time, if I may
venture to offer an observation, are there not such things as reciprocal
duties--some which are even more paramount in a father than the mere
begetting of a son?"

"What do you mean, sir, by these insolent remarks?" interrupted my father.

"Excuse me, my dear father, I may be wrong, but if so, I will bow to your
superior judgment; but it does appear to me, that the mere hanging me in
a basket at the gate of the Foundling Hospital, and leaving me a
bank-note of fifty pounds to educate and maintain me until the age of
twenty-four, are not exactly all the duties incumbent upon a parent. If
you think that they are, I am afraid that the world, as well as myself,
will be of a different opinion. Not that I intend to make any complaint,
as I feel assured that now circumstances have put it in your power, it is
your intention to make me amends for leaving me so long in a state of
destitution, and wholly dependent upon my own resources."

"You do, do you, sir