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A large sum of money in the funds, and an extensive, ancient, but not very productive estate, were now put into the hands of this young couple, and unhappily the wedding settlement of the lady was also entrusted to her own keeping. Mr. Falconer entered on his new possessions with apparent wisdom, for he stopped suddenly all his former projects whether good or bad, made a considerable reform in his establishment, observing (perhaps justly) "that a rich man may do, what a poor one dare not," and then bade his wife farewel, and returned again to her property in Wales.

He had taken it into his head that a mountain on this estate, whose only merit had hitherto been that of a sheep walk, would prove to him a mine rich as Peruvia's in the product of iron ore, and so much was he bent on this pursuit, that he resolved to sacrifice every other scheme for its attainment.

To this end, he now resigned the company of a lovely and beloved wife, who was to him, and found in him, all the relations of life, and the endearing prattle of a sweet infant, in whose very appearance he would have found a useful monitor, reminding him of her claims as the heir of two ancient inheritances, and as a female unallied and unprotected save by himself.