and after due time of preparation, the monument was set up, exhibiting
the arms and coronet of the Esmonds, supported by a little chubby group
of weeping cherubs, and reciting an epitaph which for once did not tell
any falsehoods.




CHAPTER IV

In which Harry finds a New Relative


Kind friends, neighbours hospitable, cordial, even respectful,--an
ancient name, a large estate and a sufficient fortune, a comfortable
home, supplied with all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life,
and a troop of servants, black and white, eager to do your bidding; good
health, affectionate children, and, let us humbly add, a good cook,
cellar, and library--ought not a person in the possession of all these
benefits to be considered very decently happy? Madam Esmond Warrington
possessed all these causes for happiness; she reminded herself of them
daily in her morning and evening prayers. She was scrupulous in her
devotions, good to the poor, never knowingly did anybody a wrong. Yonder
I fancy her enthroned in her principality of Castlewood, the country
gentlefolks paying her court, the sons dutiful to her, the domestics
tumbling over each other's black heels to do her bidding, the poor whites
grateful for her bounty and implicitly taking her doses when they were
ill, the smaller gentry always acquiescing in her remarks, and for ever
letting her win at backgammon--well, with all these benefits, which are
more sure than fate allots to most mortals, I don't think the little