In the first place, he was worth thrice the money at the former period that he had been worth at the latter.

Of course his moral system had undergone all the mutations that are known to be dependent on a change of this important character.

Beyond a question, during the last five-and-twenty years of the life of my ancestor, his political bias, too, was in favor of exclusive privileges and exclusive benefits.

I do not mean that he was an aristocrat in the vulgar acceptation.

To him, feudality was a blank; he had probably never heard the word.
Portcullises rose and fell, flanking towers lifted their heads, and embattled walls swept around their fabrics in vain, so far as his imagination was concerned.