The Caxtons Part XVI by Edward Bulwer-lytton

The Results. -- Perverted Ambition. -- Selfish Passion. -- The Intellect Distorted by the Crookedness of the Heart.

Vivian's schemes thus prospered. He had an income that permitted him the outward appearances of a gentleman, -- an independence modest, indeed, but independence still. We were all gone from London. One letter to me with the postmark of the town near which Colonel Vivian lived, sufficed to confirm my belief in his parentage and in his return to his friends. He then presented himself to Trevanion as the young man whose pen I had employed in the member's service; and knowing that I had never mentioned his name to Trevanion, -- for without Vivian's permission I should not, considering his apparent trust in me, have deemed myself authorized to do so, -- he took that of Gower, which he selected, haphazard, from an old Court Guide as having the advantage -- in common with most names borne by the higher nobility of England -- of not being confined, as the ancient names of untitled gentlemen usually are, to the members of a single family.