assistance?—vain was the thought. Cold and selfish, timid and calculating, would Mr. or Mrs. Arden, basking in the sunshine of affluence, possessing this world's goods, its luxuries, its superfluities, would they stretch out to him a helping hand to assist him in this extremity? By no means.
Sir Aubrey had been informed of his son's arrest by Mr. Arden, by whom the news had been carried to him with all dispatch. His proud wrath, not having abated in asperity since his last interview with his son, from the discovery then made, led him to feel rather gratified than otherwise at his son's humiliating circumstances, which he conceived would lead him into a state of contrition for past extravagances, and induce a lasting amendment in his future conduct.
Wearied by the continual sameness and perplexity of his thoughts, De Brooke was for a time drawn out of them by the contemplation of his associates in that comfortless abode. For, on account of the many unhappy persons then confined in the Bench, it had been necessary to associate two or three in one room. It had fallen to the lot of De Brooke to meet with two companions, fellow-sharers in affliction. Each by his dress presented an aspect of poverty, but each held a rank above
