That day fortnight after Mrs. Gray's death, fifty pounds were received,
with a note, intimating that it was designed to put the child R. M. into
proper mourning. The writer had added two or three words, desiring that
the surplus should be at Mr. Gray's disposal, to meet the additional
expenses of this period of calamity; but Mr. Moncada had left the phrase
unfinished, apparently in despair of turning it suitably into English.
Gideon, without farther investigation, quietly added the sum to the
account of his ward's little fortune, contrary to the opinion of Mr.
Lawford,--who, aware that he was rather a loser than a gainer by the
boy's residence in his house, was desirous that his friend should not
omit an opportunity of recovering some part of his expenses on that
score. But Gray was proof against all remonstrances.
As the boy advanced towards his fourteenth year, Dr. Gray wrote a more
elaborate account of his ward's character, acquirements, and capacity.
He added that he did this for the purpose of enabling Mr. Moncada to
judge how the young man's future education should be directed. Richard,
he observed, was arrived at the point where education, losing its
original and general character, branches off into different paths of
knowledge, suitable to particular professions, and when it was therefore
become necessary to determine which of them it was his pleasure that
young Richard should be trained for; and he would, on his part, do all
he could to carry Mr. Moncada's wishes into execution, since the amiable
qualities of the boy made him as dear to him, though but a guardian, as
he could have been to his own father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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