To hide its effect, he threw
himself on his friend's breast, and exclaimed, "Do not injure me and
my father by such thoughts. You are come, dearest Sobieski, to a
second home. Sir Robert Somerset will consider himself ennobled in
supplying the place of your lamented grandfather--in endowing you
like a son! Oh, Thaddeus, you must be my cousin, dear as a brother,
as well as my friend!"
Thaddeus replied with an agitated affection as true as that of the
generous speaker. "But," added he, "I must not allow the noble heart
of my now regained Somerset to believe that I can live a dependant on
any power but the Author of my being. Therefore, if Sir Robert
Somerset will assist me to procure some unobtrusive way of acquiring
my own support in the simplicity I wish, I shall thank him from my
soul. In no other way my kindest friend, can I ever be brought to tax
the munificence of your father."
Pembroke colored at this, and exclaimed, in a voice of distress and
displeasure, "Sobieski! what can you mean? Do you imagine that ever
my father or myself can forget that you were little less than a
prince in your own country?--that when in so high a station you
treated me like a brother; that you preserved me even when I lifted
my arm against your life. Can we be such monsters as to forget all
this, or to think that we act justly by you in permitting you to
labor for your bread? No, Thaddeus; my very soul spurns the idea.
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