Page:Modern Literature Volume 3 (1804).djvu/278

A rank in society, which he had only faintly hoped to attain in the decline of years, he now realized in the youthful vigour of life. His beloved Maria was placed in that sphere, which she was so well fitted to adorn, and to which it had been the utmost ambition of his love that she might be raised. To his growing family, he saw the certainty of opulence and distinction, and resolved to make it his chief care, that the understandings and hearts of his children, should be adequate to their fortunes. He saw his friends prosperous and happy around him, and his absent brother, for professional talents and enterprize, was promoted to command a frigate; while his uncle, Captain Wentbridge, who had intended to divide a considerable property among the children of his sister, with a mere honorary legacy to his brother, who required or wanted no pecuniary ad-