In all this, however, it seems that he erred. Indeed, it must be acknowledged that he did not feel very great satisfaction in his own conduct. He felt that he was not respectable. He had no real enjoyment in his follies; but he thought that if his means were increased, he should be more happy, and he now began to suspect more seriously than ever that he was suffering all the annoyance of dependence without any great hopes of reaping much ultimate advantage from it. Left to himself, the thoughts of his dependent and equivocal situation rushed painfully and perplexingly into his mind. He saw no immediate prospect of extrication from his difficulties, except it should be in an advantageous marriage. Whatever ultimate advantage might result from marrying Clara Rivolta, it was very obvious that no immediate benefit would be derived from it. He would be thus rendering himself more than ever dependent on the caprice of his wealthy relative; and he did not much approve or admire the style of Signora Rivolta, whose notions of dignity differed much from his, and who possessed a very obvious and powerful influence over the mind of her father. Nothing appeared to promise him any effective liberation from his perplexities but a marriage with Miss Sampson. This, however, he could not contemplate with perfect satisfaction, and it began to be even less tolerable than it had formerly appeared. The more he knew of Miss Sampson, the more proofs did he find of her weakness and frivolity; and from the specimen which he had seen at the evening-party, he concluded that their city connexions were more numerous and less select than he had before imagined. Then again he recollected how sneeringly and contemptuously he had accustomed himself to speak and to think of vulgar people. For when Mr. John Martindale had offered him a residence at Brigland Abbey, and had, in making that offer, used such language as intimated his intention of constituting Mr. Philip his heir, the young gentleman began to swell and expand with very lofty thoughts, and to plume himself greatly on his rank, and to anticipate the embellishment and perhaps increase of his rank by means of an ample fortune. Gradually however these high thoughts abated, and the mortifications of dependence on a capricious old humorist became more sensible and annoying. And when the discovery of a daughter and her family had diverted the mind and thoughts of his opulent relative into another channel, then indeed did he most seriously tremble for his own fate.