on which he was really adamant. He was proud, and he
was mean. He liked to live pompously, and fare luxuriously,--he made it
his business to cut off every expense that did not affect his own
comfort, or dignity. But that done, other matters could go on as they
chose for him.

So that while it was not to be thought of that Boldero Abbey should
exist without a full staff of retainers without and within, it was all
that his eldest daughter--the family manager--could do to get her own
and her sisters' allowances paid with any regularity--and whereas the
stables were well supplied with horses, and a new carriage was no
uncommon purchase, it was as much as any one's place was worth to hire a
fly from the station on an unexpectedly wet day.

When, exactly three years before the date on which our story opens,
there had appeared on the scene a suitor for the hand of the youngest
Miss Boldero, in the shape of a rich young Liverpool gentleman--General
Boldero always talked of young Stubbs as "a Liverpool gentleman," and
his hearers knew what he meant--he was accorded a free hand in reality,
though demur was strewn on the surface like cream on a pudding.

"I have had to give in," quoth the general with a rueful
countenance--but he spread the news right and left, and Leonore was
kissed and bidden make the "Liverpool gentleman" a good wife.

Whereupon Leonore laughed and promised. Godfrey Stubbs was her very
first admirer, and she thought him as nice as he could be. At first the
Boldero girls had been somewhat surprised at the encouragement shown a
stranger to come freely among them, but when it became clear that Mr.
Godfrey Stubbs was a privileged person, they found it wonderfully
pleasant to have a man about the place, where a pair of trousers was a
rare sight--and the inevitable happened.

The engagement concluded, Leonore trod on air. She who had never been
anywhere, who was never supposed to have a wish or thought of her own,
was all at once a queen. Godfrey assented to everything, and of himself
drew up the plan--oh, glorious! of a prolonged wedding tour. His little
bride was to go wherever she chose, see the sights she selected,
and--shop in Paris. She was actually to stay a whole fortnight in Paris
to buy clothes.

"Very right, very proper;" nodded her father to this.

He was so smiling and genial over everything at this juncture that
Leonore's tongue wagged freely in his presence, and on hearing the above
she turned