sole relict of his handsome stud which he had been proudly fond of displaying across country. With the death of the squire, Mrs Hartshorne became more saving and pinching, and miserly than ever. The first thing she did was to dismiss the old butler, who had been in the family for some forty years, saying she "could not afford to support a lazy, useless pauper;" the next was to tell the bailiff and estate agent that their services were no longer required, for "she would have no curious eyes prying into her property, and telling everyone how much she was worth." The house was almost shut up and buried in seclusion, and no one but Doctor Jolly ever went there. _He_ said he "would not be denied by any woman in creation," and although the "dowager," as she now came to be termed, used to put on her most vinegar-like expression for him, and address him in the snappiest and most provoking and insulting manner, he would call at the Poplars at least once a month in obedience to the promise he had given to the old squire on his death-bed to "look after his poor children." It must be said that Mrs Hartshorne tolerated the doctor in a sort of way--her way; and if she liked anyone, liked him who was a favourite with the whole county round. She had said to him when he first used to come, that she supposed he "came there because he might charge for his visits, and get something by it;" but when she found this was not the case, and that Doctor Jolly had no base intentions towards her money bags, she tolerated him, and allowed him to come and go as he pleased, without bestowing on him more than her customary amount of sweet temper. When Tom grew old enough he was sent to school, only coming home for one week every year by express stipulation with the proprietor of the school! and when he became eighteen, at his earnest wish, and after continual wranglings with the old lady--who was passionately fond of him, although at the same time possessing an inordinate affection for money--he was allowed to go into the army. His mother said that he would "ruin her" when she gave an order on her banker to the doctor, who was Tom's guardian, for the sum required for his commission and outfit, but she did not behave illiberally, and gave master Tom a very fair allowance, satisfying her conscience by raising all the rents of her poorer tenants, and grinding down the household expenses more than ever. Of Tom she was not only fond but proud: it was the only one womanly trait in her character; and although she was not a very motherly kind of woman, and did not display her affection in the manner customary to the feminine sex--ruling her household, even Tom, with a rod of iron and a stern sense of duty--yet her son was very much attached to her, notwithstanding he did not exhibit any strong partiality for visiting her. He knew that the less he saw of her the better: they both understood each other well.