CHAPTER V.

OF A FINE MAN AND SOME FOOLISH WOMEN.


"For life is like unto a winter's day,
Some break their fast and so depart away;
Others stay dinner, then depart full fed;
The longest age but sups, and goes to bed."

Anon.

Mr. John Mortimer, as has before been said, was the father of seven
children. It may now be added that he had been a widower one year and a
half.

Since the death of his wife he had been his own master, and, so far as
he cared to be, the master of his household.

This had not been the case previously: his wife had ruled over him and
his children, and had been happy on the whole, though any woman whose
house, containing four sitting-rooms only, finds that they are all
thoroughfares, and feels that one of the deepest joys of life is that of
giving dinner-parties, and better ones than her neighbours, must be held
to have a grievance--a grievance against architects, which no one but an
architect can cure.

And yet old Augustus, in generously presenting this house, roof and all,