first efforts, and pronounced judgment in these plain words: "What a
pity he has not got his bread to earn by his brush!"

On the death of old Robert, his daughters found themselves (to use
their own expression) reduced to a trumpery legacy of ten thousand
pounds each. Their brother inherited the estate, and the bulk of the
property--not because his father cared about founding a family, but
because the boy had always been his mother's favourite.

The first of the three children to marry was the eldest sister.

Maria considered herself fortunate in captivating Mr. Vere--a man of
old family, with a high sense of what he owed to his name. He had a
sufficient income, and he wanted no more. His wife's dowry was settled
on herself. When he died, he left her a life-interest in his property
amounting to six hundred a year. This, added to the annual proceeds of
her own little fortune, made an income of one thousand pounds. The
remainder of Mr. Vere's property was left to his only surviving child,
Ovid.

With a thousand a year for herself, and with two thousand a year for
her son, on his coming of age, the widowed Maria might possibly have
been satisfied--but for the extraordinary presumption of her younger
sister.

Susan, ranking second in age, ranked second also in beauty; and yet, in
the race for a husband, Susan won the prize!

Soon after her sister's marriage, she made a conquest of a Scotch
nobleman, possessed of a palace in London, and a palace in Scotland,