"Captain Paget would never have been put on the right track if he had
not filched your secrets from you," said the son and heir of Susan
Meynell. "It is to your researches, in the first place, that I owe
this inheritance; and you cannot refuse to accept the agreed price of
your labour."
Valentine did not refuse this fairly-earned reward, nor did he oppose the
settlement which Gustave made in favour of Charlotte's infant son. It
seemed to him only just that some share of the heritage should fall to
the descendant of poor Susan's younger sister and faithful friend.
With this capital of three thousand pounds comfortably invested in
consols, and with the interest of that sum of ten thousand pounds settled
on his infant son, Mr. Hawkehurst began the world, in his new character
of a husband and a father, very pleasantly.
Of his literary career very little need be said here. He was yet at the
beginning of the long dusty road that leads to the temple of Fame. It is
enough to state that he found the dusty high-road rather difficult
walking, and that he was pelted with more mud, flung by nameless
assailants hidden behind the hedges, than he had anticipated when he set
out upon the first stage of his journey. Happily, he found pleasant
fellow-travellers and kindly encouragement from an indulgent public, and
was thus able to accept the mud which bespattered his garments in a very
placid spirit, and to make light of all obstacles in the great highway.
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