"Still now do her contemptuous taunts vibrate on my ear, as she told me my new-acquired dignities would not sit graceful on me, if I knew not better how to sustain the character of a gentleman!
"'They sit not easy on me, indeed, Madam,' I replied with a sigh. 'Would to Heaven, that he who has borne them since my birth, still existed; then should I not want a friend—a parent!'
"'No more of this insolence, Sir,' she retorted;—'lest you make me forget I bear that title: and remember, it is in my power to prove an enemy!'
"'It is indeed!' I repeated. 'I had at the moment, forgotten you gave me birth!'
"She darted a look of scorn and anger at me, and desiring me henceforward to behave with the duty which became me as a son and ward, left me again to the torments of reflection.
"At noon, Mallet brought my dinner; and an hour after took it away, untouched.
"For a week I was regularly served by him, and in that time, by means of the closet, learned that the clergyman who was present with Blond at the reading of the will, had been presented with the Corbet living; though, as he refused to resign the house where he had long resided, Mrs. Blond was permitted to remain at the Parsonage, at least till a proper opportunity should occur of turning her out: likewise, that my mother, wishing to preserve the character she had ever maintained in the opinion of the world, immediately granted her request, that Blond, as he had entreated, might be interred in the same vault with my father.
"This act of complaisance, however, was soon followed by one I little expected.
"On the death of Sir Horace, my father, regarding the legacy bequeathed to Blond as far less than he had a right to expect, would have added a considerable donation to it; but this Blond refused, and was at last, with difficulty, prevailed on to accept a small but pleasant estate, which adjoined the Parsonage lands. This, however, from some neglect, for which I cannot account, but most probably from Blond's unwillingness to receive it, had never been properly assigned to him; though the rent was constantly paid to him, and he regarded as the owner.
"This estate, my father, a few months before his decease, informed me he had, with one more considerable, left in the fullest manner to his brother. Nevertheless, my mother now reclaimed it and, as no writings could be produced to prove it Mrs. Blond's, basely wrested from her the principal means of her subsistence.