The grass grew beautifully, now the trees were down,
and he let it for pasture.
He then, still under Wheeler's advice, came out into the world again,
improved his dress, and called on several county families, with a view
to marrying money.
Now in the country they do not despise a poor gentleman of good
lineage, and Bassett was one of the oldest names in the county; so
every door was open to him; and, indeed, his late hermit life had
stimulated some curiosity. This he soon turned to sympathy, by telling
them that he was proud but poor. Robbed of the vast estates that
belonged to him by birth, he had been unwilling to take a lower
position. However, Heaven had prospered him; the wrongful heir was
childless; he was the heir at law, and felt he owed it to the estate,
which must return to his line, to assume a little more public
importance than he had done.
Wherever he was received he was sure to enlarge upon his wrongs; and he
was believed; for he was notoriously the direct heir to Bassett and
Huntercombe, but the family arrangement by which his father had been
bought out was known only to a few. He readily obtained sympathy, and
many persons were disgusted at Sir Charles's illiberality in not making
him some compensation. To use the homely expression of Govett, a small
proprietor, the baronet might as well have given him back one pig out
of his own farrow--_i.
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