bone-scrapings, while broadcloth and ortolans were
within his easy reach. But there are women, wives and mothers of
families, who would give the bone-scrapings to their husbands and the
bones to their servants, while they hide the ortolans for themselves;
and would dress children in rags, while they cram chests, drawers,
and boxes with silks and satins for their own backs. Such a woman
one can thoroughly despise, and even hate; and such a woman was Mrs.
Mason of Groby Park.

I shall not trouble the reader at present with much description of
the young Masons. The eldest son was in the army, and the younger at
Cambridge, both spending much more money than their father allowed
them. Not that he, in this respect, was specially close-fisted. He
ascertained what was sufficient,--amply sufficient as he was told by
the colonel of the regiment and the tutor of the college,--and that
amount he allowed, assuring both Joseph and John that if they spent
more, they would themselves have to pay for it out of the moneys
which should enrich them in future years. But how could the sons
of such a mother be other than spendthrifts? Of course they were
extravagant; of course they spent more than they should have done;
and their father resolved that he would keep his word with them
religiously.

The daughters were much less fortunate, having no possible means of
extravagance allowed to them. Both the father and mother decided
that they should go out into the county society, and therefore their
clothing was not absolutely of rags. But any young lady who does go
into society, whether it be of county or town, will fully understand
the difference between a liberal and a stingy wardrobe. Girls with
slender provisions of millinery may be fit to go out,--quite fit in
their father's eyes; and yet all such going out may be matter of
intense pain. It is all very well for the world to say that a girl
should be happy without reference to her clothes. Show me such a
girl, and I will show you one whom I should be very sorry that a boy
of mine should choose as his sweetheart.

The three Misses Mason, as they always were called by the Groby Park
people, had been christened Diana, Creusa, and Penelope, their mother
having a passion for classic literature, which she indulged by a use
of Lempriere's dictionary. They were not especially pretty, nor were
they especially plain. They were well grown and healthy, and quite
capable of enjoying themselves in any