He gave up London,--why, he acknowledged not to himself; but it was because he had outlived his age.
Most of his old set were gone; new hours, new habits, had stolen in.
He had ceased to be of importance as a marrying man, as a personage of fashion; his health was impaired; he shrank from the fatigues of a contested election; he resigned his seat in parliament for his native county; and once settled at Laughton, the life there soothed and flattered him,--there all his former claims to distinction were still fresh.

He amused himself by collecting, in his old halls and chambers, his statues and pictures, and felt that, without fatigue or trouble, he was a greater man at Laughton in his old age than he had been in London during his youth.
Lucretia was then thirteen.

Three years afterwards, Olivier Dalibard was established in the house; and from that time a great change became noticeable in her.

The irregular vehemence of her temper gradually subsided, and was replaced by an habitual self-command which rendered the rare deviations from it more effective and imposing.

Her pride changed its character wholly and permanently; no word, no look of scorn to the low-born and the poor escaped her.