Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY. -9
had broken out in London, and which was now quieted by dread
of consequences, but which he felt and knew was there, and might
break out again. He was a changed man. There was a gulf
between him and the life he had led before he went to London.
He had tasted of liberty (or rather, not to profane that divine
word, of licentiousness), and yet not drunk long enough to make
him weary of the draught. He had heard the dogmas he was
brought up to believe infallible turned to unutterable ridicule by
men like Saltire and Wrekin; men who: as he had the wit to see,
were a thousand times cleverer and better informed than Father
Clifford or Father Dennis. In short, he had found out, as a
great many others have, that Popery won't hold water, and so, as
a pis aller, he adopted Saltire's creed, - that religion was necessary for the government of states, that one religion was as good
as another, and that, cceteris paribus, the best religion was the
one which secured the possessor 10,0001. a year; and therefore
Densil was a devout Catholic.
It was thought by the allied powers that he ought to marry.
He had no objection, and so he married a young lady, a Miss
Winkleigh, - Catholic, of course, - about whom I can get no
information whatever. Lady Ascot says that she was a pale girl,
with about as much air as a milkmaid; on which two facts I can
build no theory as to her personal character. She died in 1816,
childless; and in 1820 Densil lost both his father and mother,
and found himself, at the age of thirty-seven, master of Ravenshoe, and master of himself.
He felt the loss of the old folks most keenly, more keenly than
that of his wife. He seemed without a stay or holdfast in the
world, for he was a poorly-educated man, without resources; and
so he went on moping and brooding until good old Father Clifford, who loved him dearly, got alarmed, and recommended travels. He recommended Rome, the cradle of the faith, and to Rome
he went.
He stayed in Rome a year; at the end of which time he appeared suddenly at home with a beautiful young wife on his arm.
As Father Clifford, trembling and astonished, advanced to lay his
hand upon her head, she drew up, laughed, and said, " Spare
yourself the trouble, my dear sir; I am a Protestant."
I have had to tell you all this, in order to show you how it
came about that Densil, though a Papist, bethought of marrying
a Protestant wife to keep up a balance of power in his house.
For, if he had not married this lady, the hero of this book would
never have been born; and this greater proposition contains the
less, " that, if he had never been born, his history would never
have been written, and so this book would have had no existence."