as she was more niggardly; and whilst she scolded and grudged every penny
she paid, he ran in debt magnanimously for hundreds. When the living and
deanery came into his possession, the second year's fruits had been eaten
beforehand. Money he must have, and money his wife would not give--but
a litigious agent suggested to him a plan for raising it, by demanding
a considerable sum from the executors of the late Dr. Leicester, for
what is called _dilapidation_. The parsonage-house seemed to be in good
repair; but to make out charges of dilapidation was not difficult to
those who understood the business--and fifteen hundred pounds was the
charge presently made out against the executors of the late incumbent.
It was invidious, it was odious for the new vicar, in the face of his
parishioners, of all those who loved and respected his predecessor, to
begin by making such a demand--especially as it was well known that the
late dean had not saved any of the income of his preferment, but had
disposed of it amongst his parishioners as a steward for the poor. He had
left his family in narrow circumstances. They were proud of his virtues,
and not ashamed of the consequences. With dignity and ease they retrenched
their expenses; and after having lived as became the family of a dignitary
of the church, on quitting the parsonage, the widow and her niece retired
to a small habitation, suited to their altered circumstances, and lived
with respectable and respected economy. The charge brought against them by
the new dean was an unexpected blow. It was an extortion, to which Mrs.
Leicester would not submit--could not without injury to her niece, from
whose fortune the sum claimed, if yielded, must be deducted.

Alfred Percy, from the first moment of their distress, from the time of
good Dr. Leicester's death, had been assiduous in his attentions to Mrs.
Leicester; and by the most affectionate letters, and, whenever he could
get away from London, by his visits to her and to his Sophia, had proved
the warmth and constancy of his attachment Some months had now passed--he