"Of all the notable things on earth,
The queerest one is pride of birth."
A few years ago a well-known Bostonian, the descendant of an honored
family, began the ancestral quest with expert assistance. All went merry
as a marriage bell for a time, when suddenly he unearthed an unsavory
scandal that concerned one of his progenitors. Feeling a responsibility
for the misdeeds of his great-grandfather, he ordered all investigation
stopped, and the disagreeable data destroyed; but he had delved too far.
His genealogist had told a friend, and the secret was out beyond recall.
--_D. O. S. Lowell._
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