The acquaintance of Dolly the reader has already made.

Dolly, who certainly was a poor creature though good-natured, had energy in one direction.

He would quarrel perseveringly with his father, who only had a life interest in the estate.

The house at Caversham Park was during six or seven months of the year full of servants, if not of guests, and all the tradesmen in the little towns around, Bungay, Beccles, and Harlestone, were aware that the Longestaffes were the great people of that country.

Though occasionally much distressed for money, they would always execute the Longestaffe orders with submissive punctuality, because there was an idea that the Longestaffe property was sound at the bottom.