ever placed it very far back, but always fancied it must be connected
with his uncle's first marriage, which was a highly imprudent and very
miserable one.

Whatever it had arisen from, his father had evidently taken part with
his uncle; but old Augustus never mentioned the subject. John was aware
that he wrote to his mother once a year, but she never answered. This
might be, John thought, on account of her great age and her infirmities;
and that very evening he began to dismiss the subject from his mind,
being aided by the circumstance that he was himself the only son of a
very rich and loving father, so that anything the mother might have left
to her second surviving son was not a matter of the slightest importance
to her grandson, or ever likely to be.

CHAPTER V.

OF A FINE MAN AND SOME FOOLISH WOMEN.

"For life is like unto a winter's day,
Some break their fast and so depart away;
Others stay dinner, then depart full fed;
The longest age but sups, and goes to bed."

Anon.

Mr. John Mortimer, as has before been said, was the father of seven
children. It may now be added that he had been a widower one year and a
half.

Since the death of his wife he had been his own master, and, so far as
he cared to be, the master of his household.

This had not been the case previously: his wife had ruled over him and
his children, and had been happy on the whole, though any woman whose
house, containing four sitting-rooms only, finds that they are all
thoroughfares, and feels that one of the deepest joys of life is that of
giving dinner-parties, and better ones than her neighbours, must be held
to have a grievance--a grievance against architects, which no one but an
architect can cure.

And yet old Augustus, in generously presenting this house, roof and all,
to his son, had said, "And, my dears, both of you, beware of bricks and
mortar. I have no doubt, John, when you are settled, that you and Janie
will find defects in your house. My experience is that all houses have
defects; but my opinion is, that it is better to pull a house down, and
build a new one, than to try to remedy them."

Mr. Augustus Mortimer had tried building, rebuilding, and altering
houses more than once; and his daughter-in-law knew that he would be
seriously vexed if she disregarded his advice.

Of course if it had been John himself that had objected, the thing would
have been done in spite of that; but his father