ther's brother, but
they had never agreed, and we were almost strangers to each other. He
died, and one day we were all surprised, not to say delighted, to hear
from his executor, a Mr. Nixon, a rich merchant in London, that my
uncle had left my mother four hundred pounds a year as long as she did
not marry again, but at her death the said annuity was to be divided
between my two sisters, independent of any coverture. The residue and
bulk of the property was settled on me, under trust to Mr. Nixon until
I was of age, with a request that I should be brought up to the law and
entered as a barrister in the Inner Temple. Further, a sum of five
hundred pounds was allowed for a new outfit, in every way becoming to
all of us. Mr. Nixon announced that in a fortnight he would take the
opportunity of being in our neighbourhood to come over and make the
necessary arrangements consequent upon the altered state of affairs. He
added that the residue of the property would yield about one thousand
pounds a year, and that, therefore, my education must be looked to more
closely than it probably had been. Here was, indeed, a change. My
father had left the house and grounds, and something like six hundred
pounds a year in the funds, entirely to my mother as long as she
remained a widow, or until her death. Afterwards one hundred and fifty
pounds per annum to each of my sisters, and the house and residue to
me--a moderate income requiring other efforts to make it comfortable to
one's upbringing. Here I was now the heir eventually to something like
fifteen hundred pounds a year, two country houses, and a very fair
house besides attached to my uncle's house. You may easily imagine the
joy of the whole family when from somewhat pinched economy, we found
ourselves in easy circumstances, with at once quite double our previous
income. We indulged in somewhat wild dreams of what all this might
produce; but mamma brought us to our senses by informing us that until
I was of age Mr. Nixon would entirely control our destinies, and that
it was more than probable he would insist upon sending me to a public
school. This news dashed all our hopes to pieces with a vengeance,
because it was precisely on our greater freedom that we had been
counting, and now there was every probability our delightful
intercourse and delicious orgies would come to an abrupt termination.
We exchanged sad and crestfallen looks on hearing this from mamma, and
met in a very discon