The practical result of its being in Chancery was that no one lived there.
John Short liked Mrs.Ambrose and the Honourable Cornelius behaved to her with well bred affability.

She always said Cornelius had very nice manners, as indeed he had and had need to have.

Occasionally, perhaps four or five times in the year, the Reverend Edward Pewlay, who had what he called a tenor voice, and his wife, who played the pianoforte very fairly, came over to assist at a Penny Reading.

He lived "over Harlow way," as the natives expressed it; he was what was called in those parts a rabid Anglican, because he preached in his surplice and had services on the Saints' days, and the vicar of Billingsfield did not sympathise in his views.

Nevertheless he was very useful at Penny Readings, and on one of these occasions produced a very ingenious ghost for the delectation of the rustics, by means of a piece of plate glass and a couple of lamps.
There had indeed been festivities at the vicarage to which as many as three clergymen's wives had been invited, but these were rare indeed.