r, dear mother, and the faithful Glastonbury, experienced some of
the most transporting moments of their existence, when they beheld,
with admiring gaze, the hero who returned to them. Their eyes were never
satiated with beholding him; they hung upon his accents. Then came the
triumphant visit to Grandison; and then Ferdinand returned to Malta, in
the full conviction that he was the heir to fifteen thousand a year.

Among many other, there is one characteristic of capitals in which
Valetta is not deficient: the facility with which young heirs apparent,
presumptive, or expectant, can obtain any accommodation they desire. The
terms; never mind the terms, who ever thinks of them? As for Ferdinand
Armine, who, as the only son of an old baronet, and the supposed future
inheritor of Armine Park, had always been looked upon by tradesmen with
a gracious eye, he found that his popularity in this respect was not at
all diminished by his visit to England, and its supposed consequences;
slight expressions, uttered on his return in the confidence of
convivial companionship, were repeated, misrepresented, exaggerated, and
circulated in all quarters. We like those whom we love to be fortunate.
Everybody rejoices in the good luck of a popular character; and soon it
was generally understood that Ferdinand Armine had become next in the
entail to thirty thousand a year and a peerage. Moreover, he was not
long to wait for his inheritance. The usurers pricked up their ears, and
such numerous proffers of accommodation and assistance were made to the
fortunate Mr. Armine, that he really found it quite impossible to refuse
them, or to reject the loans that were almost forced on his acceptance.

Ferdinand Armine had passed the Rubicon. He was in debt. If youth but
knew the fatal misery that they are entailing on themselves the moment
they accept a pecuniary credit to which they are not entitled, how they
would start in their career! how pale they would turn! how they would
tremble, and clasp their hands in agony at the precipice on which they
are disporting! Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime;
it taints the course of life in all its dreams. Hence so many unhappy
marriages, so many prostituted pens, and venal politicians! It hath a
small beginning, but a giant's growth and strength. When we make the
monster we make our master, who haunts us at all hours, and shakes his
whip of scorpions for ever in our sight. The slave hath no over