But in the days of which we write the Squire of Carbury Hall had become a poor man simply through the wealth of others.

His estate was supposed to bring him in L2,000 a year.

Had he been content to let the Manor House, to live abroad, and to have an agent at home to deal with the tenants, he would undoubtedly have had enough to live luxuriously.

But he lived on his own land among his own people, as all the Carburys before him had done, and was poor because he was surrounded by rich neighbours.

The Longestaffes of Caversham,--of which family Dolly Longestaffe was the eldest son and hope,--had the name of great wealth, but the founder of the family had been a Lord Mayor of London and a chandler as lately as in the reign of Queen Anne.