His uncle's affairs had reached a crisis, and ruin stared him in
the face. Algernon Hurdlestone had ever been the most imprudent of men;
and under the fallacious hope of redeeming his fortune, he had, unknown
to his son and nephew, during his frequent trips to London,
irretrievably involved himself by gambling to a large extent. This false
step completed what his reckless profusion had already begun. He found
himself always on the losing side, but the indulgence of this fatal
propensity had become a passion, the excitement necessary to his
existence. The management of his estates had always been entrusted
entirely to a steward, who, as his master's fortunes declined, was
rapidly rising in wealth and consequence. Algernon never troubled
himself to enquire into the real state of his finances, whilst Johnstone
continued to furnish him with money to gratify all the whims and wants
of the passing moment.
The embarrassed state of the property was unknown to his young
relatives, who deemed his treasures, like those of the celebrated
Abulcasem, inexhaustible. Godfrey, it is true, had latterly received
some hints from Johnstone how matters stood, but his mind was so wholly
occupied with his pursuit of Juliet Whitmore, and the unpleasant
predicament in which he was placed by his unfortunate connexion with
Mary Mathews, that he had banished the disagreeable subject from his
thoughts.
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