Still, I must do something for her--eh ?" "Yes, I think so.

What was she ?-very low ?" "A tradesman's daughter." "The children should be provided for according to the rank of the mother; that's the general rule in such cases: and the mother should have about the same provision she might have looked for if she had married a tradesman and been left a widow.

I dare say she was a very artful kind of person, and don't deserve anything; but it is always handsomer, in the eyes of the world, to go by the general rules people lay down as to money matters." So spoke Mrs.Beaufort.She concluded her husband had settled the matter, and never again recurred to it.

Indeed, she had never liked the late Mr.Beaufort, whom she considered mauvais ton.
In the breakfast-room at Mr.Beaufort's, the mother and son were seated; the former at work, the latter lounging by the window: they were not alone.

In a large elbow-chair sat a middle-aged man, listening, or appearing to listen, to the prattle of a beautiful little girl--Arthur Beaufort's sister.