ianship of a near relative, until he had completed, not only his
college course, but also his studies in the Temple--an almost
indispensable requirement of that day for young gentlemen of condition.

His studies in the Temple had been productive of one result, which Lord
Coke, if I remember, considers idiosyncratic in the younger votaries of
the law--he had fallen in love with an heiress. The natural consequence
was a tedious year, after his return home, spent at the seat of the
provincial government, and a most energetic and persevering interchange
of letters with the lady, whom my authority allows me to name Gertrude
Marshall. This was followed by another voyage across the Atlantic, and
finally, as might be predicted, by a wedding with all proper observance
and parental sanction. Lindsay then returned, a happier and more
tranquil man, to Virginia, where he fulfilled the duties of more than
one public station of dignity and trust.

In due course of time he fell heir to his father's wealth, which with
the estate of his wife made him one of the most opulent and considerable
gentlemen of the Old Dominion.

He had but two children--Mildred and Henry--with four years difference
between their ages. These were nurtured with all the care and indulgent
bounty natural to parents whose affections are concentrated upon so
small a family circle.

Lindsay's character was grave and thoughtful, and inclined him to avoid
the contests of ambition and collision with the world. A delicate taste,
a nice judgment, and a fondness for inquiry made him a student and an
ardent lover of books. The ply of his mind was towards metaphysics; he
delved into the obsolete subtleties of the old schools of philosophy,
and found amusement, if not instruction, in those frivolous but
ingenious speculations which have overshadowed even the best wisdom of
the schoolmen with the hues of a solemn and absurd pedantry. He dreamed
in the reveries of Plato, and pursued them through the aberrations of
the Coryphaeans. He delighted in the visions of Pythagoras, and in the
intellectual revels of Epicurus. He found attraction in the Gnostic
mysteries, and still more in the phantasmagoria of Judicial Astrology.
His library furnished a curious index to this unhealthy appetite for the
marvellous and the mystical. The writings of Cornelius Agrippa, Raymond
Lully, and Martin Delvio, and others of less celebrity in this circle of
imposture, were found associated with true