There had
been enough of the family ambition latent in him for Timothy Petrick
to feel a little envy when, some time before this date, his brother
Edward had been accepted by the Honourable Harriet Mountclere,
daughter of the second Viscount of that name and title; but having
discovered, as I have before stated, the paternity of his boy Rupert
to lurk in even a higher stratum of society, those envious feelings
speedily dispersed. Indeed, the more he reflected thereon, after
his brother's aristocratic marriage, the more content did he become.
His late wife took softer outline in his memory, as he thought of
the lofty taste she had displayed, though only a plain burgher's
daughter, and the justification for his weakness in loving the
child--the justification that he had longed for--was afforded now in
the knowledge that the boy was by nature, if not by name, a
representative of one of the noblest houses in England.
'She was a woman of grand instincts, after all,' he said to himself
proudly. 'To fix her choice upon the immediate successor in that
ducal line--it was finely conceived! Had he been of low blood like
myself or my relations she would scarce have deserved the harsh
measure that I have dealt out to her and her offspring. How much
less, then, when such grovelling tastes were farthest from her soul!
The man Annetta loved was noble, and my boy is noble in spite of
me.'
The afterclap was inevitable, and it soon came.
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