To proceed then with our narrative. The plaintiff received an award of five thousand pounds; and the defendant, not finding it convenient or agreeable to pay that sum, remained a voluntary exile from his native land.
The Earl of Trimmerstone had begun to think seriously, and almost painfully. He looked back on the past, and was astonished to see what opportunities of rendering himself respectable he had suffered to pass away unimproved. He now saw that in almost every step he had been wrong, and he was bitterly mortified. He knew not how to escape from his miserable feelings, or to what object or pursuit to direct his attention. Mr. Martindale pitied him very sincerely; but Mr. Martindale ought to have blamed himself that he had not taken pains to prevent this unpleasant catastrophe. For under pretence and colour of supplying the young man with the means of keeping up an appearance in the world, he had only furnished him with an opportunity of making a fool of himself. Mr. Martindale had never given his young relative any of his confidence; he had treated him with a distant and capricious patronage. The old gentleman knew well enough the character of Celestina Sampson; and he also knew enough of his kinsman to be well aware that there could not be on his part much sincerity of attachment to her; but he must have known that mere necessity compelled the match. That necessity it was in his power to remove; and it was indeed his duty, inasmuch as his own fanciful liberality had in the first instance created it. It was also the duty of the old gentleman to watch a little more attentively over the conduct of his relative, even after his marriage, and after his accession of title. But the truth is, that old Mr. Martindale, like many other rich, queer, liberal, or money-giving men, consulted rather his own humor in his liberality than any advantage or benefit likely to accrue from it to the object of his bounty. It had so happened, that at the time that his large property came into his possession, he had no other probable or plausible recipient of his superfluous wealth than the Martindale family. For then he had not discovered, nor did he think it probable that he ever should discover, his lost and long-neglected daughter. Now, however, that this discovery was made, all his thoughts were centred in her and her child; and though he professed not to have forgotten his cousin, the attention which he paid him was very capricious.
