From being penniless, and head over ears in debt, I became suddenly a rich man--not by my father's will, who entailed every acre of the estates here and elsewhere on Ralph, and left everything he could to him.

I had thought of telling you what my best friends have never known, why I am not still crippled by debt.

I had thought of telling you why, at five-and-thirty, I was still unmarried, for my debts were not the reason; but I will not trouble you with that now.

It is enough to say that I found myself in a position which, had I been a little younger, with rather a different past, I should have enjoyed more than I did.

I was well received in English society when, after a lapse of several years and a change of fortune, I returned to it.