of many years had she the happiness of being with william of the rest she saw nothing nobody seemed to think of her ever going amongst them again even for a visit nobody at home seemed to want her but william soon after her removal to be a sailor was invited to spend a week with his sister in before he went to sea their eager affection in meeting their exquisite delight in being together their hours of happy mirth and moments of serious conference may be imagined as well as the sanguine views and spirits of the boy even to the last and the misery of the girl when he left her luckily the visit happened in the christmas holidays when she could directly look for comfort to her cousin and he told her such charming things of what william was to do and be hereafter in consequence of his profession as made her gradually admit that the separation might have some use s friendship never failed her his leaving for oxford made no change in his kind dispositions and only afforded more frequent opportunities of proving them without any display of doing more than the rest or any fear of doing too much he was always true park to her interests and considerate of her feelings trying to make her good qualities understood and to conquer the which prevented their being more apparent giving her advice consolation and encouragement kept back as she was by everybody else his single support could not bring her forward but his attention were otherwise of the highest importance in assisting the improvement of her mind and extending its pleasures he knew her to be clever to have a quick apprehension as well as good sense and a fondness for reading which properly directed must be an education in itself miss lee taught her french and heard her read the daily portion of history but he recommended the books which charmed her leisure hours he encouraged her taste and corrected her judgment he made reading useful by talking to her of what she read and heightened its attraction by judicious praise in return for such services she loved him better than anybody in the world except william her heart was divided between the two m the first event of any importance in the family was the death of mr which happened when was about fifteen and necessarily introduced alterations and mrs on the removed first to the park and afterwards to a small house of sir thomas s in the village and consoled herself for the loss of her husband by considering that she could do very well without him and for her of income by the evident necessity of economy the living was hereafter for and had his uncle died a few years sooner it would have been duly given to some friend to hold till he were old enough for orders but tom s extravagance had previous to that event been so great as to render a different disposal of the next necessary and the younger brother must help to pay for the pleasures of the elder there was another family living actually held for but though this circumstance had made the arrangement somewhat easier to sir thomas s conscience he could not but feel it to be an act of injustice and he earnestly tried to impress his eldest son with the same conviction in the hope of its producing a better effect than anything he had yet been able to say or do park i blush for you tom said he in his most dignified manner i blush for the expedient which i am driven on and i trust i may pity your feelings as a brother on the occasion you have robbed for ten twenty thirty years perhaps for life of more than half the income which ought to be his it may hereafter be in my power or in yours i hope it will to procure him better but it must not be forgotten that no benefit of that sort would have been beyond his natural claims on us and that nothing can in fact be an equivalent for the certain advantage which he is now obliged to forego through the of your debts tom listened with some shame and some sorrow but escaping as quickly as possible could soon with cheerful selfishness reflect first that he had not been half so much in debt as some of his friends secondly that his father had made a most tiresome piece of work of it and that the future incumbent whoever he might be would in all probability die very soon on mr s death the became the right of a dr grant who came consequently to reside at and on proving to be a hearty man of forty five seemed likely to disappoint mr s calculations but no he was a sort of fellow and plied well with good things would soon pop off he had a wife about fifteen years his junior but no children and they entered the neighborhood with the usual fair report of being very respectable agreeable people park the time was now come when sir thomas expected his sister in law to claim her share in their niece the change in mrs s situation and the improvement in s age seeming not merely to do away any former objection to their living together but even to give it the most decided and as his own circumstances were rendered less fair than heretofore by some recent losses on his west india estate in addition to his eldest son s extravagance it became not to himself to be relieved from the expense of her support and the obligation of her future provision in the fulness of his belief that such a thing must be he mentioned its probability to his wife and the first time of the subject s to her again happening to 