information on the fate of the beings that had become favourites of the
school-room; and this has induced me to believe that the following out
of my own notions as to the careers of former heroes and heroines might
not be unwelcome; while I have tried to make the story stand
independently for new readers, unacquainted with the tale in which Lady
Merrifield and her brothers and sisters first appeared.

'Scenes and Characters' was, however, published so long ago, that the
young readers of this generation certainly will only know it if it has
had the good fortune to have been preserved by their mothers. It was
only my second book, and in looking back at it so as to preserve
consistency, I have been astonished at its crudeness.

It will explain a few illusions to state that it is the story of the
motherless family of Mohuns of Beechcroft, with a kindly deaf father at
the head, Mr. Mohun, whose pet name was the Baron of Beechcroft, owing
to a romantic notion of his daughters made fun of by his sons. The
eldest sister, a stiff, sensible, dry woman, had just married and gone
to India, leaving her post to the next in age, Emily, who was much too
indolent for the charge. Lilies, the third in age, with her head full
of the kind of high romance and sentiment more prevalent thirty or
forty years ago than now, imagined that whereas the household had
formerly been ruled by duty, it now might be so by love. Of course,
confusion dire was the consequence, chiefly with the younger boys, the
scientific, cross-grained Maurice, and the high-spirited, turbulent
Reginald, all the mischief being fomented by Jane's pertness and
curiosity, and only mitigated by the honest simplicity and dutifulness
of eight years old Phyllis. The remedy was found at last in the
marriage of the eldest son William with Alethea Weston, already
Lilias's favourite friend and model.