The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 44: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

EDGAR BEVERLEY 25 birth, and though his pay was limited, yet he contrived, by the most rigid economy, to give me a good education. On reaching the age of twelve, I was sent to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, my father bidding me keep it in mind that he had neither money nor interest to procure me a commission, and that I must therefore endeavour to obtain one by the requisite proficiency in my studies. I applied myself thereto with all possible assiduity, and at the age of sixteen I obtained an ensigncy in the th regiment of the line. Fortune and misfortune came upon me at the same instant, for on the very day that I read my name in the official gazette as an officer in the Queen’s service, my poor father was stricken with paralysis, which in less than a fortnight proved fatal.’’ » Here Edgar Beverley paused for upwards of a minute, during which he was visibly struggling against his emotions, and then he resumed his narrative in the following manner: ‘‘T have stated that my father, in contracting a marriage with a portionless young lady, had offended all his relatives, but none more so than his elder brother, who vowed that he would never speak to him again; and that brother kept his word. But when my father was dead, my uncle appeared somewhat to relent, and he sent an invitation to me to visit him during the few weeks that were to elapse between the funeral and the time appointed for me to join my regiment. Now this uncle of mine was a bachelor, exceedingly rich, with the estates strictly entailed, so that I was his heir presumptive. Of course you understand that if he married and had male issue, I at once ceased to be his heir. But from certain circumstances which I do not choose specially to touch upon, he was not considered to be what is called a marrying man. Perhaps, therefore, regarding me as his heir, he wished to unbend toward me, to make himself acquainted with me, and to atone somewhat for his long-continued ob- duracy toward my poor father. Beall this as it may, he sent. for me, as I tell you, to his town mansion at the West End of London, and then, at the age of a little past sixteen, I beheld this unele of mine for the first time. I could not help it, but I at once conceived toward him a feeling that bordered almost on aversion. Perhaps it was the recollection of his conduct. toward my parents, perhaps it was in consequence of certain discreditable rumours which had reached my ears, CORnnICLOOOKS (CO)