he most fervid blessing that a father ever granted to a son.
But, with all this pious consolation, it was a moment of agony.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

_Partly Retrospective, yet Very Necessary to be Perused_.

EARLY five years had elapsed between the event which formed the subject
of our last chapter and the recall to England of the regiment in which
Captain Armine now commanded a company. This period of time had passed
away not unfruitful of events in the experience of that family, in
whose fate and feelings I have attempted to interest the reader. In this
interval Ferdinand Armine had paid one short visit to his native land;
a visit which had certainly been accelerated, if not absolutely
occasioned, by the untimely death of his cousin Augustus, the
presumptive heir of Grandison. This unforeseen event produced a great
revolution in the prospects of the family of Armine; for although the
title and an entailed estate devolved to a distant branch, the absolute
property of the old lord was of great amount; and, as he had no male
heir now living, conjectures as to its probable disposition were
now rife among all those who could possibly become interested in it.
Whatever arrangement the old lord might decide upon, it seemed nearly
certain that the Armine family must be greatly benefited. Some persons
even went so far as to express their conviction that everything would be
left to Mr. Armine, who everybody now discovered to have always been a
particular favourite with his grandfather. At all events, Sir Ratcliffe,
who ever maintained upon the subject a becoming silence, thought it
as well that his son should remind his grandfather personally of his
existence; and it was at his father's suggestion that Ferdinand had
obtained a short leave of absence, at the first opportunity, to pay a
hurried visit to Grandison and his grandfather.

The old lord yielded him a reception which might have flattered the
most daring hopes. He embraced Ferdinand, and pressed him to his heart a
thousand times; he gave him his blessing in the most formal manner every
morning and evening; and assured everybody that he now was not only his
favourite but his only grandson. He did not even hesitate to affect a
growing dislike for his own seat, because it was not in his power to
leave it to Ferdinand; and he endeavoured to console that fortunate
youth for his indispensable deprivation by mysterious intimations that
he would, perhaps, fin