Independent?
No! I have never been so." VANCE.--"Well, you depend on a parent: who, at seventeen does not ?" LIONEL.--"I did not mean my mother; of course, I could not be too proud to take benefits from her.

But the truth is simply this--, my father had a relation, not very near, indeed,--a cousin, at about as distant a remove, I fancy, as a cousin well can be.

To this gentleman my mother wrote when my poor father died; and he was generous, for it is he who paid for my schooling.

I did not know this till very lately.

I had a vague impression, indeed, that I had a powerful and wealthy kinsman who took an interest in me, but whom I had never seen." VANCE.--"Never seen ?" LIONEL.--"No.