Our conversation was of the news of the day, or on such general topics as strangers discourse upon to each other; nor could any one have guessed, from its tenor, that there remained undecided betwixt us a dispute of such importance.

It haunted me, however, more than once, like the nightmare.

Was it possible he would keep his word, and disinherit his only son in favour of a nephew whose very existence he was not perhaps quite certain of?
My grandfather's conduct, in similar circumstances, boded me no good, had I considered the matter rightly.

But I had formed an erroneous idea of my father's character, from the importance which I recollected I maintained with him and his whole family before I went to France.

I was not aware that there are men who indulge their children at an early age, because to do so interests and amuses them, and who can yet be sufficiently severe when the same children cross their expectations at a more advanced period.