With more wealth than he required; with a gentle wife, who if she
ruled him never showed it, or was conscious of the fact herself; looked up
to by his neighbors, a simple affectionate set of people, whose fathers
had lived near his father and grandfather in the same kindly relation,
receiving benefits cordially given, and requiting them with good will and
respectful attention: such had been the circumstances surrounding him; and
until his son grew out of childhood, there had not seemed a wish which he
had it not in his power to gratify as soon as formed. Again, when Frank was
at school and at college, all went on prosperously; he gained honors enough
to satisfy a far more ambitious father. Indeed, it was the honors he gained
that stimulated his father's ambition. He received letters from tutors,
and headmasters, prophesying that, if Frank chose, he might rise to the
"highest honors in church or state;" and the idea thus suggested, vague as
it was, remained, and filled Mr. Buxton's mind; and, for the first time in
his life, made him wish that his own career had been such as would have led
him to form connections among the great and powerful. But, as it was, his
shyness and _gene_, from being unaccustomed to society, had made him
averse to Frank's occasional requests that he might bring such and such a
school-fellow, or college-chum, home on a visit. Now he regretted this, on
account of the want of those connections which might thus have been formed;
and, in his visions, he turned to marriage as the best way of remedying
this.
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