THE LEGEND OF THE ABBEY TOWER. 101 



was, to say the least of it, entirely free from affectation ; and while, 

 in common with many, he possessed an unhappy degree of sensi- 

 bility, he also owned a ' share of honour,' a sense of independence, 

 and a liveliness (not strength) of intellect, peculiarly his own. With 

 all this, I only ask, what could be expected as the effects of a pa- 

 rental treatment, whose system was the indiscriminate administration 

 of tenderness and tyranny ? You, sir, might have understood his 

 tearless eye and outward calm when his mother died; but the 

 baronet, who was not given to translate the dead language of settled 

 intensity, saw nothing in his son's conduct beyond a stupid insensi- 

 bility to the loss of * poor dear lady B.' and would rate him roundly 

 on the score of filial ingratitude and unfeelingness. The young 

 man had no answer beyond a significant smile and sigh, which si- . 

 multaneously came forth and fell upon his father's organs of 

 irascibility like nitric acid on a copper halfpenny. I have before 

 given a specimen of the droll fashion after which he waxed wroth 

 on such occasions. The son, while newly impressed with his 

 mother's loss, paid little attention to these fiery whims, ' for, where 

 the greater malady is fixed, the lesser's scarcely felt:' but time, 

 which heaven has mercifully commissioned with a reconciling balm 

 for all losses, in due course, closed the wound occasioned by his late 

 deprivation, and left him more and more open to the influence of 

 his father's temper. 



As to my hero's person, he was, at the best, but a threadpaper 

 sort of a young gentleman, below the middle height, not handsome, 

 but most poetically pale. Delicate in the constitution both of body 

 and mind, the harassments of his home had no improving effect 

 upon either ; and it was observed by many of us, that for a length 

 of time he grew thinner and paler. Not favourably prepossessed by 

 his person, I remained entirely ignorant of his real worth until I 

 became intimate with him as his medical attendant. If his ^form 

 and moving' were not so * express and admirable' as you could de- 

 sire in a hero of romance, his heart and brain went far towards 

 remedying the deficiency; for they were both of a pure and unusual, 

 though not commanding, order. To luxuriate in deeds of gentle 

 humanity, and to revel in the sweets of elegant literature, with, of 

 course, some loved participator, formed the day dreams of his re- 

 stricted soul; and he never wandered more upon these subjects 

 than when on the couch of sickness, where, by cold, bile, or rheuma- 

 tism, he was not unfrequently placed. I soon learned to love him, 

 sir, and accompanied my leeches, draughts and liniments, with af- 

 fectionate advice and moral applications. I believe, moreover, that 



