ooner
we are out of this huge expensive house the better; if I could get
my mother to go with the little girls to the sea-side. Take her away
altogether from this home--take her"--

"Where?" inquired Mr. Adams; "she will not accept shelter in my
house."

"I do not know," answered his niece, relapsing into all
the helplessness of first grief; "indeed I do not know; her
brother-in-law, Sir James Ashbroke, invited her to the Pleasaunce,
but my brother objects to her going there, his uncle has behaved so
neglectfully about his appointment."

"Foolish boy!" muttered Charles; "this is no time to quarrel about
trifles. The fact is, Mary, that the sooner you are all out of this
house the better; there are one or two creditors, not for large sums
certainly, but still men who will have their money; and if we do
not quietly sell off, they will force us. The house might have been
disposed of last week by private contract, but your mother would not
hear of it, because the person who offered was a medical rival of my
poor brother."

Mary did not hear the concluding observation; her eyes wandered from
object to object in the room--the harp--the various things known from
childhood. "Any thing you and your mother wish, my dear niece,"
said her kind uncle, "shall be preserved--the family pictures--your
harp--your piano--they are all hallowed memorials, and shall be kept
sacred."

Mary burst into tears. "I do not," she said, "shrink from considering
those instruments the means of my support; but although I know the
necessity for so considering, I feel I cannot tell what at quitting
the home of my childhood; people are all kind; you, my dear uncle,
from whom we expected so little, the kindest of all; but I see, even
in these early days of a first sorrow, indications of falling off. My
aunt's husband has really behaved very badly about the appointment of
my eldest brother; and as to the cadetship for the second--we had such
a brief dry letter from our Indian friend--so many first on the list,
and the necessity for waiting, that I do not know how it will end."

"I wish, my dear, you could prevail on your mother, and sister, and
all, to come to Repton," said Mr. Adams. "If your mother dislikes
being in my house, I would find her a cottage near us; I will do all
I can. My wife joins me in the determination to think that we have six
additional children to look to. We differ from you in our habits; but
our hearts and affections are no l