See, now, what life is! I have had ill-luck on ill-luck from that day to this. I have sunk in the world, and, instead of riding my horse and drinking my wine, as a real gentleman should, have hardly enough now to buy a pint of ale; ay, and am very glad when anybody will treat me to one. Why, why was I born to undergo such unmerited misfortunes?

You must know that very soon after my adventure with Miss Crutty, and that cowardly ruffian, Captain Waters (he sailed the day after his insult to me, or I should most certainly have blown his brains out; NOW he is living in England, and is my relation; but, of course, I cut the fellow)—very soon after these painful events another happened, which ended, too, in a sad disappointment. My dear papa died, and, instead of leaving five thousand pounds, as I expected at the very least, left only his estate, which was worth but two. The land and house were left to me; to mamma and my sisters he left, to be sure, a sum of two thousand pounds in the hands of that eminent firm Messrs. Pump, Aldgate and Co., which failed within six months after his demise, and paid in five years about one shilling and ninepence in the pound; which really was all my dear mother and sisters had to live upon.

The poor creatures were quite unused to money matters; and, would you believe it? when the news came of Pump and Aldgate\'s failure, mamma only smiled, and threw her eyes up to heaven, and said, “Blessed be God, that we have still wherewithal to live. There are tens of thousands in this world, dear children, who would count our poverty riches.” And with this she kissed my two sisters, who began to blubber, as girls always will do, and threw their arms round her neck, and then round my neck, until I was half stifled with their embraces, and slobbered all over with their tears.

“Dearest mamma,” said I, “I am very glad to see the noble manner in which you bear your loss; and more still to know that you are so rich as to be able to put up with it.” The fact was, I really thought the old lady had got a private hoard of her own, as many of them have—a thousand pounds or so in a stocking. Had she put by thirty pounds a year, as well she might, for the thirty years of her marriage, there would have been nine hundred pounds clear, and no mistake. But still I was angry to think that any such paltry concealment had been practised—concealment too of MY money; so I turned on her pretty sharply, and continued my speech. “You say, Ma\'am, that you are rich, and that Pump and Aldgate\'s failure has no effect upon you. I am very happy to hear you say so, Ma\'am—very happy that you ARE rich; and I should like to know where your property, my father\'s property, for you had none of your own,—I should like to know where this money lies—WHERE YOU HAVE CONCEALED IT, Ma\'am; and, permit me to say, that when I agreed to board you and my two sisters for eighty pounds a year, I did not know that you had OTHER resources than those mentioned in my blessed father\'s will.”

This I said to her because I hated the meanness of concealment, not because I lost by the bargain of boarding them: for the three poor things did not eat much more than sparrows: and I\'ve often since calculated that I had a clear twenty pounds a year profit out of them.

Mamma and the girls looked quite astonished when I made the speech. “What does he mean?” said Lucy to Eliza.

Mamma repeated the question. “My beloved Robert, what concealment are you talking of?”

“I am talking of concealed property, Ma\'am,” says I sternly.

“And do you—what—can you—do you really suppose that I have concealed—any of that blessed sa-a-a-aint\'s prop-op-op-operty?” screams out mamma. “Robert,” says she—“Bob, my own darling boy—my fondest, best beloved, now HE is gone” (meaning my late governor—more tears)—“you don\'t, you cannot fancy that your own mother, who bore you, and nursed you, and wept for you, and would give her all to save you from a moment\'s harm—you don\'t suppose that she would che-e-e-eat you!” And here she gave a louder screech than ever, and flung back on the sofa; and one of my sisters wen............