mination of the leading characteristics of individual families as displayed through a series of generations. But it is a subject

in the originals of those hard daubs and of ourselves, we may light upon a face that about six generations since was the counterpart of the little boy upon our shoulder, or the daughter standing at our side. In the

d a doubt that the Caresfoots of Bratham Abbey had handed down their own hard and peculiar cast of character f

red the common fate, was granted by Henry VIII. to a certain courtier, Sir Charles Varry by name. For two years the owner never came near his new possession, but one day he appeared in the village, and riding to the house of Farmer Caresfoot, which was its most respectable tenement, he begged him to show him the Abbey

r Charles with a shudder, looking towards

e right

now that the old

ly full of the spirits of the dead," and th

ttered, "I can well believe it," a

uld buy an abbey with all its righ

it. But still, sir, if you have a mind to be rid of the place, I have a little laid by and a natural love for the land, having been bred on it, and taken the c

ed you cannot be so unkind as you would have me think. The monks did not love bad land, but yet, if thou ha

th its two advowsons, its royal franchises of treasure-trove and de

gely in value, and its acreage was considerably added to by the father of the present owner, a man of frugal mind, but with the family mania for the collection of all sorts of plate strongly developed. But it was Philip's father, "Devil Caresfoot," who had, during his fifty years' tenure of the property, raised the family to its p

t and his glittering eye. But she married him for all that, to feel that till she died that glance was always playing round her like a rapier in the hands of a skilled fencer. And very soon she did die, Mr. Caresfoot receiving her last words and wishes with the same exquisite and unmoved politeness that he had extended to every remark she had made

ore touching, by the fact that its object was little better than half-witted. It is therefore easy to imagine his distress and anger when he heard that a woman who had till shortly before been kitchen-maid at the Abbey House, and was now livin

. What took place at the visit never transpired, but next day Mrs. E. Caresfoot left her native place never to return, the child remaining with the father, or rather with the unc

Mr. Caresfoot than his own son. Not, however, that he allowed his preference to be apparent, save in the negative way that he was blind to faults in George that he was sufficiently quick to note in Philip. To observers this partiality seemed t

ch as he had sunk his side of the balance, by so much he had raised up that of George. He was inculpated; a Bellamy came upon the scene to save George, and, what was worse, an untruthful Bellamy; he was the aggressor, and George the meek in spirit with

had been walking, and that he was very near the abode of that person-almost at its gates, in short. He paused and looked at his watch; it had stopped at half-past eleven, the one blow that George had succeeded in planting upon him having landed on it, to the great detrime

es, Miss Lee was in the

the garden, which Mr.

hted to see you; you've just come

slaughter of

I'm going to k

cruel

uratum. I gave three-and-six (out of my own money) for that bulb last autumn, and now the bloom is not worth twopence, all through green fly. If I were a man I declare I should swear. Pleas

the matter? A

better than that.

has got her?

r contempt, which frequently happens after you have tried to 'show a cause.' That is what has happened to Grumps. She is now showing a cause; shortly she will be locked up. When she come

you mean, Maria? Wha

(anglice

could help it, not even the ward of an hospital. I told her to be careful, or she would be 'committing contempt,' which frightened her so that she hardly spoke again till she left yesterday. Poor Grumps! I expect she is on bread and water now; but if she makes herself half as disagreeable to the Vice-Chancellor as she did to me, I don't believe that they will keep her long. She'll wear the gaolers out; she will wear the walls out; she will wear 'it' down to the bo

eady sympathy. She was essentially one of that class of Englishwomen who make the English upper middle class what it is-one of the finest and soundest in the world. Philip, following her into the house, tho

ainted with the circumstances would have gathered that that excellent lady was to be shortly put to the question. Philip

the table to sit under the trees on the lawn. "I can see t

his heart-aches, and not even concealing his evil deeds. When he h

e that about the ten pounds; and I think that you should not have touched George; he is not so strong as you. Please try to do as your father-dear me, I am sure I don't wonder that you are afraid of him; I am-tells you, and rega

eyes as he listened to her. He gu

o me; you are the only

at you are

d join Grumps. Don't let me hear any more such stuff," but, t

new building on Reynold's farm. I have only twenty minutes to get home;" and r

ed, and, after a moment's

gry with me, but ma

ushed

re is no new Grumps to refer to, and therefore I can only consult my ow

he

nt her head against the

she murmured, "