I can hardly describe accurately¹ the exact position of the Masters family without first telling all that I know about the Morton family; and it is absolutely essential that the reader should know all the Masters family intimately. Mr. Masters, as I have said in the last chapter, was the attorney in Dillsborough, and the Mortons had been for centuries past the squires² of Bragton.

I need not take the reader back farther than old Reginald Morton. He had come to the throne of his family as a young man, and had sat upon it for more than half a century. He had been a squire³ of the old times, having no inclination⁴ for London seasons, never wishing to keep up a second house, quite content with his position as squire of Bragton, but with considerable pride about him as to that position. He had always liked to have his house full, and had hated petty ?conomies. He had for many years hunted the county at his own expense,—the amusement at first not having been so expensive as it afterwards became. When he began the work, it had been considered sufficient to hunt twice a week. Now the Rufford and Ufford hounds have four days, and sometimes a bye. It went much against Mr. Reginald Morton's pride when he was first driven to take a subscription⁵.

But the temporary distress⁶ into which the family fell was caused not so much by his own extravagance as by that of two sons, and by his indulgence in regard to them. He had three children, none of whom were very fortunate in life. The eldest⁷, John, married the daughter of a peer, stood for Parliament, had one son, and died before he was forty, owing something over ￡20,000. The estate was then worth ￡7,000 a year. Certain lands not lying either in Bragton or Mallingham were sold, and that difficulty was surmounted⁸, not without a considerable

分享到：