by the
inhabitants of Manor Cross.

And here also lived Lord George Germain, to whom at a very early period
of his life had been entrusted the difficult task of living as the head
of his family with little or no means for the purpose. When the old
Marquis died,--very suddenly, and soon after the Dean's coming to
Brotherton,--the widow had her jointure, some two thousand a year, out
of the property, and the younger children had each a small settled sum.
That the four ladies,--Sarah, Alice, Susanna, and Amelia,--should have
sixteen thousand pounds among them, did not seem to be so very much
amiss to those who knew how poor was the Germain family; but what was
Lord George to do with four thousand pounds, and no means of earning a
shilling? He had been at Eton, and had taken a degree at Oxford with
credit, but had gone into no profession. There was a living in the
family, and both father and mother had hoped that he would consent to
take orders; but he had declined to do so, and there had seemed to be
nothing for him but to come and live at Manor Cross. Then the old
Marquis had died, and the elder brother, who had long been abroad,
remained abroad. Lord George, who was the youngest of the family, and
at that time about five-and-twenty, remained at Manor Cross, and became
not only ostensibly but in very truth the managing head of the family.

He was a man whom no one could despise, and in whom few could find much
to blame. In the first place he looked his poverty in the face, and
told himself that he was a very poor man. His bread he might earn by
looking after his mother and sisters, and he knew no other way in
which he could do so. He was a just steward, spending nothing to
gratify his own whims, acknowledging on all sides that he had nothing
of his own, till some began to think that he was almost proud of his
poverty. Among the ladies of the family, his mother and sisters, it was
of course said that George must marry money. In such a position there
is nothing else that the younger son of a marquis can do. But Lord
George was a person somewhat difficult of instruction in such a matter.
His mother was greatly afraid of him. Among his sisters Lady Sarah
alone dared to say much to him; and even to her teaching on this
subject he turned a very deaf ear. "Quite so, George," she said; "quite
so. No man with a spark of spirit would marry a woman for her
money,"--and she laid a great stress on the word "for,"--"but I do not
see