use ever furnished?"

"Many years ago; in my grandmother's time. My father left money for the
purpose, but it was given up to my sister Alice when she married
Holdenough." He found himself explaining all the little intricacies of
his family to the Dean, because it was necessary that he should hold
council with some one. "I was thinking of a furnished house for them
elsewhere."

"In London?"

"Certainly not there. My mother would not like it, nor would my
sisters. I like the country very much the best myself."

"Not for the whole year?"

"I have never cared to be in London; but, of course, as for Mary and
myself that is settled. You would not wish her to give up the house in
Munster Court?"

"Certainly not. It would not be fair to her to ask her to live always
under the wing of your mother and sisters. She would never learn to be
a woman. She would always be in leading strings. Do you not feel that
yourself?"

"I feel that beggars cannot be choosers. My mother's fortune is L2000 a
year. As you know we have only 5000_l._ a piece. There is hardly income
enough among us for a house in town and a house in the country."

The Dean paused a moment, and then replied that his daughter's welfare
could not be made subordinate to that of the family generally. He then
said that if any immediate sum of money were required he would lend it
either to the dowager or to Lord George.

Lord George, as he rode home, was angry both with himself and with the
Dean. There had been an authority in the Dean's voice which had grated
upon his feelings; of course he intended to be as good as his word;
but, nevertheless, his wife was his wife and subject to his will; and
her fortune had been her own and had not come from the Dean. The Dean
took too much upon himself. And yet, with all that, he had consulted
the Dean about everything, and had confessed the family poverty. The
thing, however, was quite certain to him; he could not get out of the
house in town.

During the whole of that day Lady Sarah had been at work with her
mother, instigating her to insist on her own rights, and at last she
had succeeded.

"What would our life be, mamma," Lady Sarah had said, "if we were
removed altogether into a new world. Here we are of some use. People
know us, and give us credit for being what we are. We can live after
our own fashion, and yet live in accordance with our rank. There is not
a man or a woman or a child in the parish whom I do not kno