We were rewarded,--or so we thought,--for, afterwards, when I came to know Lady Ludlow, I saw that she would have done her duty by us, as helpless relations, however we might have rejected her kindness,--by a presentation to Christ's Hospital for one of my brothers.
And this was how I came to know my Lady Ludlow.
I remember well the afternoon of my arrival at Hanbury Court.

Her ladyship had sent to meet me at the nearest post-town at which the mail- coach stopped.

There was an old groom inquiring for me, the ostler said, if my name was Dawson--from Hanbury Court, he believed.

I felt it rather formidable; and first began to understand what was meant by going among strangers, when I lost sight of the guard to whom my mother had intrusted me.

I was perched up in a high gig with a hood to it, such as in those days was called a chair, and my companion was driving deliberately through the most pastoral country I had ever yet seen.