not understand anything about business. No
more I do: that is the truth. I hate the whole concern, Pen! I hate
that great tawdry house in which we live; and those fearfully stupid
parties:--Oh, how I wish we were back in Fitzroy Square! But who can
recall bygones, Arthur; or wrong steps in life? We must make the best of
to-day, and to-morrow must take care of itself. 'Poor little child!' I
could not help thinking, as I took it crying in my arms the other day,
'what has life in store for you, my poor weeping baby?' My mother-in-law
cried out that I should drop the baby, and that only the Colonel knew
how to hold it. My wife called from her bed; the nurse dashed up and
scolded me; and they drove me out of the room amongst them. By Jove,
Pen, I laugh when some of my friends congratulate me on my good fortune!
I am not quite the father of my own child, nor the husband of my own
wife, nor even the master of my own easel. I am managed for, don't you
see? boarded, lodged, and done for. And here is the man they call happy.
Happy! Oh!!! Why had I not your strength of mind; and why did I ever
leave my art, my mistress?"

And herewith the poor lad fell to chopping thistles again; and quitted
Fairoaks shortly, leaving his friends there very much disquieted about
his prospects, actual and future.

The expected dissolution of Parliament came at length. All the country
papers in England teemed with electioneering addresses; and the country
was in a flutter with particoloured ribbons. Colonel Thomas Newcome,
pursuant to his promise, offered himself to the independent electors
of Newcome in the Liberal journal of the family town, whilst Sir Barnes
Newcome, Bart., addressed himself to his old and tried friends, and
called upon the friends of the constitution to rally round him, in
the Conservative print. The addresses of our friend were sent to us
at Fairoaks by the Colonel's indefatigable aide-de-camp, Mr. Frederick
Bayham. During the period which had elapsed since the Colonel's last
canvassing visit and the issuing of the writs now daily expected for the
new Parliament, many things of great importance had occurred in Thomas
Newcome's family--events which were kept secret from his biographer, who
was, at this period also, pretty entirely occupied with his own affairs.
These, however, are not the present subject of this history, which has
Newcome for its business, and the parties engaged in the family quarrel
there.

There were four