done at once. Their house in Queen's Gate is very large, and I
know they've a room. They all ride, and I should want a horse; but
there would be nothing else, as they have plenty of carriages, and
the groom who rides with Julia would do for both of us. Pray
answer this at once, papa.

Your affectionate daughter,

GEORGIANA LONGESTAFFE.


Mr Longestaffe did condescend to read the letter. He, though he had
rebuked his mutinous daughter with stern severity, was also to some
extent afraid of her. At a sudden burst he could stand upon his
authority, and assume his position with parental dignity; but not the
less did he dread the wearing toil of continued domestic strife. He
thought that upon the whole his daughter liked a row in the house. If
not, there surely would not be so many rows. He himself thoroughly
hated them. He had not any very lively interest in life. He did not
read much; he did not talk much; he was not specially fond of eating
and drinking; he did not gamble, and he did not care for the farm. To
stand about the door and hall and public rooms of the clubs to which he
belonged and hear other men talk politics or scandal, was what he
liked better than anything else in the world. But he was quite willing
to give this up for the good of his family. He would be contented to
drag through long listless days at Caversham, and endeavour to nurse
his property, if only his daughter would allow it. By assuming a
certain pomp in his living, which had been altogether unserviceable to
himself and family, by besmearing his footmen's heads, and bewigging
his coachmen, by aping, though never achieving, the grand ways of