These traditions may be summed up in the maxims which my father
taught me--'Use hospitality; be courteous to high and low alike; assist
the poor; succor the unhappy; give bountifully without grudging; and
enjoy the goods heaven provides you, with a clear conscience, whether
you are called an aristocrat or a democrat!' Such were my father's
teachings; and he practised them, for he had the kindest and sweetest
heart in the world. He was aided in all by my mother, a perfect saint
upon earth; and if I have since that time given way to rude passions,
it was not for wanting a good example in the blameless lives of this
true gentleman and pure gentlewoman.
"Unhappily, I did not have their example long. When I was seventeen my
mother died; and my father, as though unable to live without her who
had so long been his blessing, followed her a year afterward, leaving
me the sole heir of the great possessions of the family. For a time
grief crushed me. I was alone--for I had neither brother nor sister--a
solitary youth in this great lonely house, standing isolated amid its
twenty thousand acres--and even the guardian who had been appointed to
look after my affairs, seldom came to see me and relieve my loneliness.
The only associate I had was a sort of bailiff or steward,
Nighthawk--you know him, and his attachment for me.
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