I cannot make out what Mr Parmenter does for his living. He is not a man of property, for the Vicar told Father that his nephew, Mr Parmenter's father, left nothing at all for his children. Yet Mr Anthony never seems to do anything but look through his eyeglass, and twirl his mustachios, and talk. I asked Amelia if she knew, for one of the Miss Parmenters, who is married now, lives not far from Bracewell Hall. Amelia, however, applied to Cecilia, saying she would be more likely to know. "Oh, he does nothing," said Cecilia; "he is a beau." "Now what does that mean?" put in Hatty. "I'll tell you what it means," said Charlotte. "Emily, you be quiet. It means that his income is twenty pence a year, and he spends two thousand pounds; that he is always dressed to perfection, that he is ready to make love to anybody at two minutes' notice--that is, if her fortune is worth it; that he is never at home in an evening, nor out of bed before noon; that he spends four hours a day in dressing, and would rather ten times lose his wife (when he has one) than break his clouded cane, or damage his gold snuff-box. Isn't that it, Cicely?" "You are so absurd!" said Amelia, languidly. "I told you to keep quiet," was Charlotte's answer. "Never mind whether it is absurd; is it true?" "Well, partly." "But I don't understand," I said. "How can a man spend two thousand pounds, if he have but twenty pence?" "Know, ignorant creature," replied Charlotte, with mock solemnity, "that lansquenet can be played, and that tradesmen's bills can be put behind the fire." "Then you mean, I suppose, that he games, and does not pay his debts?" "That is about the etiquette, [Note 1.] my charmer." "Well, I don't know what you call that down in the South," said I, "but up here in Cumberland we do not call it honesty." "The South! Oh, hear the child!" screamed Charlotte. "She thinks Derbyshire is in the South!" "They teach the children so, my dear, in the Carlisle schools," suggested Hatty. "I don't know what they teach in the Carlisle schools," I said, "for I did not go there. But if Derbyshire be not south of Cumberland, I haven't learned much geography." "Oh dear, how you girls do chatter!" cried Sophy, coming up to us. "I wish one or two of you would think a little more about what wants doing. Cary, you might have made the turnovers for supper. I am sure I have enough on my hands." "But, Sophy, I do not know how," said I. "Then you ought, by this time," she answered. "Do not know how to make an apple turnover! Why, it is as easy as shutting your eyes." "When you know how to do it," put in Hatty. "That is more than you do," returned Sophy, "for you are safe to leave something out."