They knew she had had a large family of sons, and that their father and uncle had left home early in life--had been _sent away_, was their thought, or would have been if the question had ever been raised so as to lead them to think about it. They were sent to Wigfield, which was about sixty miles from their home. Here they had an old second cousin, of whom they always spoke with great respect and affection. He took Augustus into his bank, and not only became as fond of him as if he had been his son, but eventually left him half of what he possessed. Daniel went into a lawyer's office, and got on very well; but he was not at all rich, and had always let his son know, that though there was an estate in the family, it never could come to him. John having also been told this, had not doubted that there must have been a family quarrel at some time or other; but in his own mind he never placed it very far back, but always fancied it must be connected with his uncle's first marriage, which was a highly imprudent and very miserable one. Whatever it had arisen from, his father had evidently taken part with his uncle; but old Augustus never mentioned the subject. John was aware that he wrote to his mother once a year, but she never answered. This might be, John thought, on account of her great age and her infirmities; and that very evening he began to dismiss the subject from his mind, being aided by the circumstance that he was himself the only son of a very rich and loving father, so that anything the mother might have left to her second surviving son was not a matter of the slightest importance to her grandson, or ever likely to be. CHAPTER V. OF A FINE MAN AND SOME FOOLISH WOMEN. "For life is like unto a winter's day, Some break their fast and so depart away; Others stay dinner, then depart full fed; The longest age but sups, and goes to bed." Anon. Mr. John Mortimer, as has before been said, was the father of seven children. It may now be added that he had been a widower one year and a half. Since the death of his wife he had been his own master, and, so far as he cared to be, the master of his household. This had not been the case previously: his wife had ruled over him and his children, and had been happy on the whole, though any woman whose house, containing four sitting-rooms only, finds that they are all thoroughfares, and feels that one of the deepest joys of life is that of giving dinner-parties, and better ones than her neighbours, must be held to have a grievance--a grievance against architects, which no one but an architect can cure.