able possession to young Oswald, on consideration
of his giving her a writ of immunity from paying back dues of any kind,
which indeed it would have been quite out of her power to discharge.
Sir Aubrey's income was comfortably sufficient for the family wants, but
there was little to spare when both ends had met. Mr Oswald accepted
the terms as an immense favour on his part; and at the age of
seventy-six Lady Louvaine was deprived of the home wherein she had dwelt
for fifty-six years, and summoned like Abraham to go forth into the land
which God would show her.

Where to go was the next question. Her daughter Milisent, with her
husband Robert Lewthwaite, would gladly have received her, and implored
her to come to them; but nine children, a full house, and a small
income, barred the way in that direction. No offer of a home came from
Red Banks, where the children of her eldest daughter Anstace lived, and
where the income was twice as large as at Mere Lea, while the family did
not amount to half the number. Temperance Murthwaite trudged up to
Selwick to offer the tiny house which was part of Lettice's little
patrimony, actually proposing herself to go to service, and leave
Lettice in her grandmother's care. This Faith regarded as a cruel
injury, and Lady Louvaine would not hear of it. From her
daughter-in-law. Mrs Walter Louvaine, at Kendal, came a
sweetly-perfumed and sweetly-worded letter, wherein the writer offered--
a thousand apologies, and a dozen excuses for not receiving her dear and
revered mother. Her grief in having so to write, she assured them, was
incalculable and inconsolable. She begged that it might be taken into
consideration that Diana was shortly to be married, and would require a
trousseau--which, she did not add, comprised a pound of gold lace, and
six pairs of silk stockings at two guineas the pair: that Montague,
being in a nobleman's household, was an appalling expense to her; that
the younger boys were growing up and would require situations found for
them, while Jane and Frances would some day need portioning: all which
facts were so many heavy burdens,--and had not the Apostle said that he
who neglected to provide for his own was worse than an infidel? Lady
Louvaine received this letter with a slight sigh, a gentle smile, and
"Poor Frances!" But the usually calm, sunny temper of Edith was not
proof against it. She tore the letter in two and flung the fragments
into the fire.

"Edit