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ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 519
" What then ? Is it not—is it not all true ?" we ask.
"Poor Charlotte does not understand about business," says
Philip; "I did not read the letter to her. Here it is." And
he hands over the document to me, and I have the liberty to
publish it.
" NEW YORK _______
" AND SO, my dear Philip, I may congratulate myself on having
achieved ancestral honour, and may add grandfather to my titles 1
How quickly this one has come ! I feel myself a young man still,
in spite of the blows of misfortune—at least I know I was a young
man but yesterday, when I may say with our dear old poet, ' Non
sine gloria militavi.' Suppose I too were to tire of solitary widowhood
and re-enter the married state ? There are one or two ladies
here who would still condescend to look not unfavourably on the
retired English gentleman. Without vanity I may say it, a man
of birth and position in England acquires a polish and refinement
of manner which dollars cannot purchase, and many a Wall Street
millionary might envy !
"Your wife has been pronounced to be an angel by a little
correspondent of mine, who gives me much fuller intelligence of
my family than my son condescends to furnish. Mrs. Philip I hear
is gentle; Mrs. Brandon says she is beautiful,—she is all goodhumoured.
I hope you have taught her to think not very badly of
her husband's father ? I was the dupe of villains who lured mo into
their schemes ; who robbed me of a life's earnings ; who induced
me by their false representations to have such confidence in them,
that I embarked all my own property, and yours, my poor boy,
alas ! in their undertakings. Your Charlotte will take the liberal,
the wise, the just view of the case, and pity rather than blame my
misfortune. Such is the view, I am happy to say, generally adopted
in this city : where there arc men of the world who know the vicissitudes
of a mercantile career, and can make allowances for misfortune.
What made Rome at first great and prosperous ? Were
its first colonists all wealthy patricians? Nothing can be more
satisfactory than the disregard shown here to mere pecuniary difficulty.
At the same time to be a gentleman is to possess no trifling
privilege in this society, where the advantages of birth, respected
name, and early education always tell in the possessor's favour.
Many persons whom I visit here have certainly not these advantages
—and in the highest society of the city I could point out individuals
who have had pecuniary misfortunes like myself, who have gallantly
renewed the combat after their fall, and are now fully restored to
competence, to wealth, and the respect of the world ! I was in a