ingenuity I should never have succeeded in the business, nor indeed
should I have undertaken it."

"Then, gentlemen, you must divide the legacy between you," said Mr.
Constantine, "and I give you joy of your happy partnership. What can he
more advantageous than a partnership between prudence and justice on the
one side, and generosity and abilities on the other?"

_June, 1800_. THE LIMERICK GLOVES.



CHAPTER I.


It was Sunday morning, and a fine day in autumn; the bells of Hereford
cathedral rang, and all the world smartly dressed were flocking to
church.

"Mrs. Hill! Mrs. Hill!--Phoebe! Phoebe! There's the cathedral bell, I say,
and neither of you ready for church, and I a verger;" cried Mr, Hill,
the tanner, as he stood at the bottom of his own staircase. "I'm ready,
papa," replied Phoebe; and down she came, looking so clean, so fresh, and
so gay, that her stern father's brows unbent, and he could only say to
her, as she was drawing on a new pair of gloves, "Child, you ought to
have had those gloves on before this time of day."

"Before this time of day!" cried Mrs. Hill, who was now coming down
stairs completely equipped, "before this time of day! she should know
better, I say, than to put on those gloves at all: more especially when