to estimate her by her own standard.  As a woman, taking her for what she was worth, she would have done very well, and received from all sensible people due consideration; but her true character as a woman was glossed over and somewhat defaced by her pride.  She did not regard her own qualities of mind as any thing—­her standing as one of the true aristocrats of society was every thing.  As for her husband, little was ever said about his ancestors; he had no scruples, while living, of an investigation, for he feared none.  His father was a wealthy merchant, and his grandfather an honest farmer, who fought for his country during the whole revolutionary campaign.  The old soldier left to his son the inheritance of sound moral principles, a good education, and an enthusiastic love of his country.  With these as his only patrimony, he started in the world.  At the age of fifty, he died, leaving to his children an untarnished name and forty thousand dollars a piece.

The father of Charles Linden had been in business several years when this event took place, and had already acquired by his own exertions, as well as by marriage, a handsome property.  He died when Charles, his eldest son, was but sixteen, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter; and a widow estimated to be worth a hundred thousand dollars.  To each of the children he left fifty thousand dollars.  This did not please the aristocratic notions of the mother.  It would have been more in consonance with her views, if but one-third of the whole property had been left to her, and the balance to their eldest son, with the reservation of small annuities for the other children.  In her own mind she determined to will all she had to Charles, with the distinct proviso that he took possession of it only on the condition of dropping his father’s name, and assuming that of her family, which was Beauchamp.

Long before he was twenty-one years of age, she commenced her insidious attacks upon his native manliness of character, which showed itself in a disposition to value every thing with which he came in contact, according to intrinsic worth.  He never bought of the family of any one with whom he was brown into association, but of qualities of head and heart.  At school he had learned how to estimate individual worth; books, truly American books, conceived by American minds, strengthened the right impression so made.  When, therefore, Mrs. Linden attempted to show him that family was the primary thing to be considered in his associations with people, her efforts were altogether fruitless.

All persons of Mrs. Linden’s way of thinking make it a point to take the marriage of their children pretty much into their own hands, believing that their external views on the subject are far better than the internal attraction toward an object that can be truly loved, which their children imagine they feel—­or, as they say, “imagine.”  The mother of Charles understood well her duty in this matter.