Mr.Wharton usually liked to postpone the flitting, as he also liked to hasten the return.

But now it was a question whether he had not better start at once,--start somewhither, and probably for a much longer period than the usual vacation.

Should he take the bull by the horns, and declare his purpose of living for the next twelvemonth at--; well, it did not much matter where; Dresden, he thought, was a long way off, and would do as well as any place.

Then it occurred to him that his cousin, Sir Alured, was in town, and that he had better see his cousin before he came to any decision.
They were, as usual, expected at Wharton Hall this autumn, and that arrangement could not be abandoned without explanation.
Sir Alured Wharton was a baronet, with a handsome old family place on the Wye in Herefordshire, whose forefathers had been baronets since baronets were first created, and whose earlier forefathers had lived at Wharton Hall much before that time.

It may be imagined, therefore, that Sir Alured was proud of his name, of his estate, and of his rank.