r little man was brought home
to his father's house, only to live a few days and expire in pain and
torture. Under the yew-trees yonder, I can see the vault which covers
him, and where my bones one day no doubt will be laid. And over our pew
at church, my children have often wistfully spelt the touching epitaph
in which Miles's heartbroken father has inscribed his grief and love for
his only son.

CHAPTER LXXXIV. In which Harry submits to the Common Lot

Hard times were now over with me, and I had to battle with poverty no
more. My little kinsman's death made a vast difference in my worldly
prospects. I became next heir to a good estate. My uncle and his
wife were not likely to have more children. "The woman is capable of
committing any crime to disappoint you," Sampson vowed; but, in truth,
my Lady Warrington was guilty of no such treachery. Cruelly smitten
by the stroke which fell upon them, Lady Warrington was taught by her
religious advisers to consider it as a chastisement of Heaven, and
submit to the Divine Will. "Whilst your son lived, your heart was turned
away from the better world" (her clergyman told her), "and your ladyship
thought too much of this. For your son's advantage you desired rank and
title. You asked and might have obtained an earthly coronet. Of what
avail is it now, to one who has but a few years to pass upon earth--of
what importance compared to the heavenly crown, for which you are an
assured candidate?" The accident caused no little sensation. In the
chapels of that enthusiastic sect, towards which, after her son's death,
she now more than ever inclined, many sermons were preached bearing
reference to the event. Far be it from me to question the course which
the bereaved mother pursued, or to regard with other than respect and
sympathy any unhappy soul seeking that refuge whither sin and grief
and disappointment fly for consolation. Lady Warrington even tried a
reconciliation with myself. A year after her loss, being in London, she
signified that she would see me, and I waited on her; and she gave me,
in her usual didactic way, a homily upon my position and her own.
She marvelled at the decree of Heaven, which had permitted, and
how dreadfully punished! her poor child's disobedience to her--a
disobedience by which I was to profit. (It appeared my poor little man
had disobeyed orders, and gone out with his gun, unknown to his mother.)
She hoped that, should I ever succeed to the prope