distant future,
would deal kindly by them, to think that they should not obtrude
themselves like upstarts on the world, but resume, as it were, the place
that was long their own.

In Frank the evil had taken a deeper root. Taught from his earliest
infancy to believe himself the heir of an ancient house, pride of birth
and station instilled into his mind by old Andy, the huntsman, the only
dependant, whom, with characteristic wisdom, they had carried with
them from Ireland, he never ceased to ponder on the subject, and wonder
within himself if he should live to have "his own" again.

Such a hold had this passion taken of him, that, even as a child, he
would wander away for days long into lonely and unfrequented spots,
thinking over the stories he had heard, and trying to conjure up before
his eyes some resemblance to that ancient house and venerable domain
which had been so long in his family. It was no part of his teaching to
know by what spendthrift and reckless waste, by what a long career of
folly, extravagance, and dissipation, the fortune of his family had been
wrecked; or rather, many vague and shadowy suspicions had been left
to fester in his mind of wrongs and injuries done them; of severe laws
imposed by English ignorance or cruelty; of injustice, on this hand
heartless indifference of friends on the other; the unrelenting anger
of his uncle Godfrey filling up the measure of their calamities. Frank
Dalton's education went very little further than this; but, bad as it
was, its effect was blunted by the natural frankness and generosity of
his character, its worst fruits being an over-estimate of himself and
his pretensions, errors which the world has always the watchful kindness
to correct in those who wear threadbare coats and patched boots.

He was warmly and devotedly attached to his father and sisters, and
whatever bitterness found its way into his heart was from seeing them
enduring the many trials of poverty.

All his enthusiasm for the service in which he was about to enter was,
therefore, barely sufficient to overcome the sorrow of parting with
those, whom alone of all the world he loved; and when the moment drew
nigh for his departure, he forgot the bright illusions by which he had
so often fed his hopes, and could only think of the grief of separation.

His candle had burned down nearly to the socket, when he arose and
looked at his watch. It was all dark as midnight without, although nigh
six o'cl