footing in his
family circle. My projects were more than fulfilled: I had money enough,
and leisure enough; and spent my obscure existence exactly as I had
proposed.

"But my life was still not destined to be altogether devoid of an
animating purpose. When I first knew Margaret Sherwin, she was just
changing from childhood to girlhood. I marked the promise of future
beauty in her face and figure; and secretly formed the resolution which
you afterwards came forward to thwart, but which I have executed, and
will execute, in spite of you.

"The thoughts out of which that resolution sprang, counselled me more
calmly than you can suppose. I said within myself: 'The best years of my
life have been irrevocably wasted; misery and humiliation and disaster
have followed my steps from my youth; of all the pleasant draughts which
other men drink to sweeten existence, not one has passed my lips. I will
know happiness before I die; and this girl shall confer it. She shall
grow up to maturity for _me:_ I will imperceptibly gain such a hold on
her affections, while they are yet young and impressible, that, when the
time comes, and I speak the word--though my years more than double hers,
though I am dependent on her father for the bread I eat, though parents'
voice and lover's voice unite to call her back--she shall still come to
my side, and of her own free will put her hand in mine, and follow me
wherever I go; my wife, my mistress, my servant, which I choose.

"This was my project. To execute it, time and opportunity were mine; and
I steadily and warily made use of them, hour by hour, day by day, year
by year. From first to last, the girl's father never suspected me.
Besides the security which he felt in my age, he had judged me by his
own small commercial standard, and had found me a model of integrity.
A man who had saved him from being cheated, who had so enlarged and
consolidated his business as to place him among the top dignitaries of
the trade; who was the first to come to the desk in the morning, and the
last to remain there in the evening; who had not only never demanded,
but had absolutely refused to take, a single holiday--such a man as
this was, morally and intellectually, a man in ten thousand; a man to be
admired and trusted in every relation of life!

"His confidence in me knew no bounds. He was uneasy if I was not by to
advise him in the simplest matters. My ears were the first to which he
confided his insane ambi