e, and to
see the dishes handed round.

The inside of the house was peculiar also. There was a very fine hall in
the centre, and a really beautiful old oak staircase wound round it,
being adorned with carving, and having a fine old fireplace on one of
the landings. This hall was the only good room in the house: on the
right of it were the kitchens and the kitchen offices, on its left was
the dining-room, which was a thoroughfare to the drawing-room, and
through that again you reached a pleasant library; John Mortimer's own
particular den or smoking room being beyond again. All these rooms had
thorough lights excepting the last, and in fine weather every one
entered them, back or front, from the garden.

Up-stairs there were a great many bedrooms, and not one good one: most
of them had sloping roofs. Then there was a long school-room, with a
little staircase of its own. You could make a good deal of noise in that
room, and not be heard beyond it; but this circumstance is no particular
advantage, if your father has no nerves at all, and scarcely observes
whether there is a noise or not.

John and Valentine Mortimer had a cheerful dinner, and after that a
riotous game at romps with the children. It was four days since the
funeral; it had now passed into the background of their thoughts, and
they concerned themselves very little further with the will of old Madam
Melcombe; for it must not be supposed that they knew much about her--not
half as much, in fact, as every man, woman, and child knew round about
the place where her house was situated.

They knew she had had a large family of sons, and that their father and
uncle had left home early in life--had been _sent away_, was their
thought, or would have been if the question had ever been raised so as
to lead them to think about it.

They were sent to Wigfield, which was about sixty miles from their home.
Here they had an old second cousin, of whom they always spoke with great
respect and affection. He took Augustus into his bank, and not only
became as fond of him as if he had been his son, but eventually left him
half of what he possessed. Daniel went into a lawyer's office, and got
on very well; but he was not at all rich, and had always let his son
know, that though there was an estate in the family, it never could come
to him. John having also been told this, had not doubted that there must
have been a family quarrel at some time or other; but in his own mind he
n