ous, that for a long time temperament should be disguised
and even stifled by education; for it is, as it were, a contest between
a child and a man.

There were moments when Ferdinand Armine loved to be alone, when he
could fly from all the fondness of his friends, and roam in solitude
amid the wild and desolate pleasure-grounds, or wander for hours in
the halls and galleries of the castle, gazing on the pictures of his
ancestors. He ever experienced a strange satisfaction in beholding the
portrait of his grandfather. He would sometimes stand abstracted for
many minutes before the portrait of Sir Ferdinand in the gallery,
painted by Reynolds, before his grandfather left England, and which the
child already singularly resembled. But was there any other resemblance
between them than form and feature? Did the fiery imagination and the
terrible passions of that extraordinary man lurk in the innocent heart
and the placid mien of his young descendant? No matter now! Behold, he
is a light-hearted and airy child! Thought passes over his brow like a
cloud in a summer sky, or the shadow of a bird over the sunshiny earth;
and he skims away from the silent hall and his momentary reverie to fly
a kite or chase a butterfly!

CHAPTER V.

_A Domestic Scene._

YEARS glided away without any remarkable incidents in the life of young
Ferdinand. He seldom quitted home, except as companion to Glastonbury
in his pedestrian excursions, when he witnessed a different kind of life
from that displayed in the annual visit which he paid to Grandison. The
boy amused his grandfather, with whom, therefore, he became a favourite.
The old Lord, indeed, would have had no objection to his grandson
passing half the year with him; and he always returned home with a
benediction, a letter full of his praises, and a ten-pound note. Lady
Armine was quite delighted with these symptoms of affection on the part
of her father towards her child, and augured from them important future
results. But Sir Ratcliffe, who was not blessed with so sanguine a
temperament as his amiable lady, and who, unbiassed by blood, was
perhaps better qualified to form an opinion of the character of his
father-in-law, never shared her transports, and seldom omitted an
opportunity of restraining them.

'It is all very well, my dear,' he would observe, 'for Ferdinand to
visit his relations. Lord Grandison is his grandfather. It is very
proper that he should visit his grandfa