kitchen; and it was only after his son's marriage that the entertaining
rooms were furnished. Even then they were kept with closed shutters
and bagged-up furniture during the lifetime of the old couple, who,
nevertheless, took a pride in adding to the rich-fashioned ornaments and
grand old china of the apartments. But they died, and were gathered to
their fathers, and young Mr. and Mrs. Buxton (aged respectively fifty-one
and forty-five) reigned in their stead. They had the good taste to make no
sudden change; but gradually the rooms assumed an inhabited appearance, and
their son and daughter grew up in the enjoyment of great wealth, and no
small degree of refinement. But as yet they held back modestly from putting
themselves in any way on a level with the county people. Lawrence Buxton
was sent to the same school as his father had been before him; and the
notion of his going to college to complete his education was, after some
deliberation, negatived. In process of time he succeeded his father, and
married a sweet, gentle lady, of a decayed and very poor county family, by
whom he had one boy before she fell into delicate health. His sister had
married a man whose character was worse than his fortune, and had been left
a widow. Everybody thought her husband's death a blessing; but she loved
him, in spite of negligence and many grosser faults; and so, not many years
after, she died, leaving her little daughter to her brother's care, with
many a broken-voiced entreaty that he would never speak a word against
the dead father of her child. So the little Erminia was taken home by her
self-reproaching uncle, who felt now how hardly he had acted towards his
sister in breaking off all communication with her on her ill-starred
marriage.

"Where is Erminia, Frank?" asked his father, speaking over Maggie's
shoulder, while he still held her hand. "I want to take Mrs. Browne to your
mother. I told Erminia to be here to welcome this little girl."