Their whole income, out of which it was necessary that they should pay rent for their cottage, was less than L70 per annum.

During the last few months a five-pound note now and again had found its way to Nuncombe Putney out of the coffers of the "D.

R.;" but the ladies there were most unwilling to be so relieved, thinking that their brother's career was of infinitely more importance than their comforts or even than their living.

They were very poor, but they were accustomed to poverty.

The elder sister was older than Hugh, but Dorothy, the younger, to whom this strange invitation was now made, was two years younger than her brother, and was now nearly twenty-six.