hope I may set things to rights by my own industry;
and I am determined to go into business, and to apply
to it in good earnest, for my own sake, and for the
sake of my children, whom I have hitherto shamefully
neglected. But I had it not always in my power,
after my marriage, to do as I wished. No more
of that. The blame be upon me for the past; for
the future I shall, I hope, be a different man.
I dare not ask you to trust so far to these good resolutions
as to take me into partnership with you, in your manufactory;
but perhaps your good-nature can direct me to some
employment suited to my views and capacity. I
ask only a fair trial; I think I shall not do as I
used to do, and leave all the letters to be written
by my partner.
“Give my love to my dear little boy and girl.
How can I thank you and Mrs. Darford enough for all
you have done for them? There is another person
whom I should wish to thank, but scarcely dare to name;
feeling, as I do, so unworthy of her goodness.
“Adieu, yours sincerely,
“CHARLES DARFORD, again, thank God.”
It is scarcely necessary to inform our readers, that
Mr. William Darford received his penitent friend with
open arms, took him into partnership, and assisted
him in the most kind and judicious manner to re-establish
his fortune and his credit. He became remarkable
for his steady attention to business; to the great
astonishment of those who had seen him only in the
character of a dissipated fine gentleman. Few
have sufficient strength of mind thus to stop short
in the career of folly, and few have the resolution
to bear the ridicule thrown upon them even by those
whom they despise. Our hero was ridiculed most
unmercifully by all his former companions,—by
all the Bond-street loungers. But of what consequence
was this to him? He did not live among them; he
did not hear their witticisms; and well knew that,
in less than a twelvemonth, they would forget such
a person as Charles Germaine had ever existed.
His knowledge of what is called high life had sufficiently
convinced him that happiness is not in the gift or
in the possession of those who are often, to ignorant
mortals, objects of supreme admiration and envy.
Charles Darford looked for happiness, and found it
in domestic life.
Belief, founded upon our own experience, is more firm
than that which we grant to the hearsay evidence of
moralists; but t happy those who, according to the
ancient proverb, can profit by the experience of their
predecessors!
Feb. 1803.
“What a blessing it is to be the father of such
a family of children!” said farmer Frankland,
as he looked round at the honest affectionate faces
of his sons and daughters, who were dining with him
on his birthday. “What a blessing it is
to have a large family of children!”
