Harriet Lee
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 102
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857 edition. Excerpt: ... estate and his pleasures, and perhaps prepared a rival at a time of life when he was likely to find himself but little disposed to endure one. Mr. Arundel, it may be easily judged, was not a man of principle: he therefore formed rather a resolution than a plan; and, without exactly analyzing his own motives, sent his son, at two years of age, into France, under the care of a person who had once been his mistress, and whose declining health induced her to try a more settled climate than her own. The woman had her instructions. The birth of young Henry was carefully concealed; and her death, which happened three years after, left the child in the hands of strangers, at a small English school in Normandy, where an annual stipend freed his father from all present anxiety. From the relations of his deceased wife he had nothing to fear; most of them were dead; the rest were wanderers over the continent, distressed by the ingratitude of a monarch whom they had abandoned every thing to serve. Time now rolled rapidly away in vanity and pleasure: but time, though it had not yet robbed Mr. Arundel of his graces, had produced an insensible alteration in them: that of novelty was vanishing fast. He began only to please where he was accustomed to captivate; and had even some vague surmises, that he might soon cease to do either; when Fortune resolved, by one favorable stroke, to atone for all her past inattention. The young heiress of the illustrious house of Lindsey was at that period first presented at court. She was beautiful, rich, and had just seen enough of the world to value all the graces it bestows. Arundel caught her eye, while his was directed elsewhere: the superior elegance of his person fixed her attention; and, when he was...