“Give a shilling to-day, and the joy you’ll derive, “To-morrow shall swell your small tribute to five; “Progressive delight ev’ry hour shall encrease, “And at length a few guineas shall purchace your peace. “If you spurn my advice, you’re a blockhead and dunce, “You cannot serve God and your Idol at once; “Who traffics with Mammon will find in the end, “He has made a bad bargain, and lost a good friend.” De Lancaster had always a kind word upon his lips for his old blind minstrel, and having told him that he had added another leaf to his laurel, went down to his family assembled in the breakfast room with all that charity in his heart, which the ditty had recommended. When the story of the soldier had been heard by Mr. Philip De Lancaster, he coolly observed, that it was a trick to extort money; he would not take the soldier’s word for a farthing, and did not believe young Owen capable of any thing cruel or uncharitable. When it was related to Cecilia, she threw her arms about the neck of the benevolent boy, pressed him to her bosom, and prayed Heaven to preserve him from the malice of that spiteful imp, whose evil-boding visage haunted her both day and night. When the mother of John was informed of the circumstance, and understood that the man, who laid sick in the house was a soldier, she sent Betty Wood to enquire of him what regiment he belonged to, and when answer was brought that he was invalided from the 15th foot in the West Indies, and private in the company of the late Captain John Jones, whom he should ever bewail as the kindest master and the best of friends, it seemed as if the fountain of her tears was never to be exhausted. An irresistible desire possessed her to see the man, and, after certain preparatory manœuvres, conducted by faithful Betty, she actually carried her resolution into effect, and entered the chamber of the soldier, planting Betty at the door to prevent interruption. As he had been selected from the ranks by Captain Jones, as his domestic servant, he had many anecdotes to relate, highly interesting to the hearer, and very honourable to his late master: he spoke also warmly in the praise of his deceased lady, and in raptures of his dear little Amelia, with whom it seems he had come over to England in the pacquet, and, after many adventures and misfortunes, was on his way to visit her at Denbigh, when sickness overtook and reduced him to the condition, in which the charity of her angel son had found him. He was now exhausted, and Mrs. De Lancaster forbore to press upon him any more enquiries: she bade him be assured that he should never want; she would pension him for life; she would settle him at Glen-Morgan in the neighbourhood of Denbigh, and, if ever she became possessed of that estate, he should be taken into her house, and pass the remainder of his days in ease and competency.