"'The entailed estates,' interrupted my mother, 'would go to the heir at law, and I should lose eight thousand a year.--So, no more on that subject, Sir. He is the son of Corbet, of the man I hated; but I will not consent to embrue my hands in his blood, though I should glory in reducing him to the state in which you left Louise!' "'Well, well, Caroline,' said Mallet, 'I yield: if you can accomplish your design, far be it from me to dissuade you from it.' "They proceeded to settle their future plans, and I retired to the outward apartment, in a state nearly answering my mother's wishes. "In the morning, Mallet brought my breakfast. I started from my seat at his entrance; his injuries to my father, his villanous intentions toward myself, rose on my tortured imagination, and hurried me nearly to madness! Impelled by the phrenzy of the moment, I hurled my chair at him with the utmost force, and levelled him with the floor! The folly of the action, the moment I had committed it, served to restore my recollection; for would it not aid my mother in her intentions to accuse me of insanity? Mallet, perhaps, believed me then deranged, for, springing on his feet, he with the greatest trepidation hurried out of the room. He, however, took care to secure the door, and I was left to reflect on my want of forbearance to one who, I was certain, would not pass by the opportunity of injuring me. My prognostic was right: in less than half an hour, my mother entered the room; her eye glanced with secret satisfaction on the fragments of china scattered on the floor; but, advancing to me, she haughtily asked the meaning of the outrage I had committed? My heart swelled to agony at the question, though certainly to have been expected. I could not avow the motive which had instigated me.--I could not utter a falsehood: and, at last, throwing myself on the bed, covered my face, and found a slight relief in groans. "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.