would prefer not to
teach at all.

Unfortunately the small tithes of a small country parish in Essex did not
furnish a sufficient income for his needs. He had been a Fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge, within a few years of taking his degree,
wherein he had obtained high honours. But he had married and had found
himself obliged to accept the first living offered to him, to wit, the
vicarage of Billingsfield, whereof his college held the rectory and
received the great tithes. The entire income he obtained from his cure
never at any time exceeded three hundred and forty-seven pounds, and in
the year when it reached that high figure there had been an unusually
large number of marriages. It was not surprising that the vicar should
desire to improve his circumstances by receiving one or two pupils. He
had married young, as has been said, and there had been children born to
him, a son and a daughter. Mrs. Ambrose was a good manager and a good
mother, and her husband had worked hard. Between them they had brought up
their children exceedingly well. The son had in his turn entered the
church, had exhibited a faculty of pushing his way which had not
characterised his father, had got a curacy in a fashionable Yorkshire
watering-place, and was thought to be on the way to obtain a first-rate
living. In the course of time, too, the daughter had lost her heart to a
young physician who had brilliant prospects and some personal fortune,
and the Reverend Augustin Ambrose had given his consent to the union. Nor
had he been disappointed. The young physician had risen rapidly in his
profession, had been elected a member of the London College, had
transferred himself to the capital and now enjoyed a rising practice in
Chelsea. So great was his success that it was thought he would before
long purchase the goodwill of an old practitioner who dwelt in the
neighbourhood of Brompton Crescent, and who, it was said, might shortly
be expected to retire.

It will be seen, therefore, that if Mr. Ambrose's life had not been very
brilliant, his efforts had on the whole been attended with success. His
children were both happy and independent and no longer needed his
assistance or support; his wife, the excellent Mrs. Ambrose, enjoyed
unfailing health and good spirits; he himself was still vigorous and
active, and as yet found no difficulty in obtaining a couple of pupils at
two hundred pounds a year each, for he had early got a reputation for
succes