things; but she is very, very mean. I can see no good in her. Poor Miss
Brereton! And it makes everybody mean about her. This poor Sir Edward
and his sister! how far nature meant them to be respectable I cannot
tell; but they are obliged to be mean in their servility to her; and I am
mean, too, in giving her my attention with the appearance of coinciding
with her. Thus it is when rich people are sordid.'

Mr. Parker has two unmarried sisters of singular character. They live
together; Diana, the younger, always takes the lead, and the elder
follows in the same track. It is their pleasure to fancy themselves
invalids to a degree and in a manner never experienced by others; but,
from a state of exquisite pain and utter prostration, Diana Parker can
always rise to be officious in the concerns of all her acquaintance, and
to make incredible exertions where they are not wanted.

It would seem that they must be always either very busy for the good of
others, or else extremely ill themselves. Some natural delicacy of
constitution, in fact, with an unfortunate turn for medicine, especially
quack medicine, had given them an early tendency at various times to
various disorders. The rest of their suffering was from their own fancy,
the love of distinction, and the love of the wonderful. They had
charitable hearts and many amiable feelings; but a spirit of restless
activity, and the glory of doing more than anybody else, had a share in
every exertion of benevolence, and there was vanity in all they did, as
well as in all they endured.

These peculiarities come out in the following letter of Diana Parker to
her brother:--

'MY DEAR TOM,--We were much grieved at your accident, and if you had