“‘Yet, thing of dust!
“Man strives to climb the earth in his ambition,
“Till death, the monitor that flatters not,
“Points to the grave where all his hopes are laid.’”
“What do you think of Ada?” said he, looking earnestly at his daughter’s miniature, that hung by the side of his writing-table. “They tell me she is like me—but she has her mother’s eyes.
“It is very odd that my mother was an only child;—I am an only child; my wife is an only child; and Ada is an only child. It is a singular coincidence; that is the least that can be said of it. I can’t help thinking it was destined to be so; and perhaps it is best. I was once anxious for a son; but, after our separation, was glad to have had a daughter; for it would have distressed me too much to have taken him away from Lady Byron, and I could not have trusted her with a son’s education. I have no idea of boys being brought up by mothers. I suffered too much from that myself: and then, wandering about the world as I do, I could not take proper care of a child; otherwise I should not have left Allegra, poor little
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