lities--and his wealth--and where, in course of
time, all their children, two daughters and six sons, were born.

And then, a vacancy occurring opportunely, Mrs. Miller determined that
her husband should stand in the Conservative interest for the county. She
would have made a Liberal of him had she thought it would answer better.
How she toiled and how she slaved, and how she kept her Andrew, who was
not by any means ambitious of the position, up to the mark, it boots not
here to tell. Suffice it to say, that the deed was accomplished, and that
Andrew Miller became M.P. for North Meadowshire.

Almost at the same time Shadonake fell into the market, and Mrs. Miller
perceived that the time had now come for her husband's wealth to be
recognized and appreciated; or, as he himself expressed it, in vernacular
that was strictly to the point if inelegant in diction, the time was
come for him "to cut a splash."

She had been very clever, this daughter of the Esterworths. She had kept
a tight rein over her husband all through the early years of their
married life. She would have no ostentation, no vulgar display of wealth,
no parading and flaunting of that twenty thousand per annum in their
neighbours' faces. And she had done what she had intended; she had
established her husband's position well in the county--she had made him
to be accepted, not only by reason of his wealth, but also because he was
her husband; she had roused no one's envy--she had never given cause for
spite or jealousy--she had made him popular as well as herself. They had
lived quietly and unobtrusively; they had, of course, had everything of
the best; their horses and carriages were irreproachable, but they had
not had more of them than their neighbours. They had entertained freely,
and they had given their guests well-cooked dinners and expensive wines;
but there had been nothing lavish in their entertainments, nothing that
could make any of them go away and say to themselves, with angry
discontent, that "those Millers" were purse-proud and vulgar in their
wealth. When she had gone to her neighbours' houses Mrs. Miller had been
handsomely but never extravagantly dressed; she had praised their cooks,
and expressed herself envious of their flowers, and had bemoaned her own
inability to vie with their peaches and their pineapples; she had never
talked about her own possessions, nor had she ever paraded her own eight
thousand pounds' worth of diamonds before t