His income was derived from the interest of about L15,000, partly in the Three per Cents, partly on mortgage; and what with my mother and Mrs.Primmins, this income always yielded enough to satisfy my father's single hobby for books, pay for my education, and entertain our neighbors, rarely indeed at dinner, but very often at tea.

My dear mother boasted that our society was very select.

It consisted chiefly of the clergyman and his family; two old maids who gave themselves great airs; a gentleman who had been in the East India service, and who lived in a large white house at the top of the hill; some half-a-dozen squires and their wives and children; Mr.Squills, still a bachelor; and once a year cards were exchanged--and dinners too--with certain aristocrats who inspired my mother with a great deal of unnecessary awe, since she declared they were the most good-natured, easy people in the world, and always stuck their cards in the most conspicuous part of the looking-glass frame over the chimney-piece of the best drawing-room.

Thus you perceive that our natural position was one highly creditable to us, proving the soundness of our finances and the gentility of our pedigree,--of which last more hereafter.

At present I content myself with saying on that head that even the proudest of the neighboring squirearchs always spoke of us as a very ancient family.