134 AGAIN, OLD AND. NEW ACQUAINTANCE,

the class of genteel beggars, or broken-down trades-
men, stepped forward, and in words almost inarticulate
from emotion, said in a hollow voice, “ William !
my son! I am your father!”

It might, or it might not, be so—the stranger bore
no resemblance to his father, as he remembered him ;
but, at all events, the rencontre was unpleasant. He
assumed his coldest air; he seemed to disbelieve ; he
refused to look at any documents which the stranger
produced ; he said he had an engagement, looked at
his watch, and rose from his chair. The father, who
was much cut down, wept; and the son, disturbed
and displeased, and yet troubled with the apprehen-
sion that it might be true, gave him two guineas, and
begged that he might not hear of him again; he
really could not thus be molested—it was extremely

unpleasant.

The poor man walked submissively away ; he felt
in the depths of his soul how hard it is for the poor
to take hold on the souls of the rich. Again and
again they met, and Williams, who, of all things,
saw how undesirable was such a claimant and such a
connection, shut his heart against conviction, and
doled out relief as if to a common importunate beggar.
The father grew angry, rose in his demands, talked
of an appeal to the magistrates to have his claim
on his son enforced: and the son, on his part, who,
however, would have made any sacrifice rather than
that the thing should become public at all, threatened
to have the father prosecuted as an impostor.

During these hard contests between father and son,
the Bassett brothers heard, with the utmost amaze-
ment and vexation, of the engagement between their

sister and Williams. They were fairly taken in their