life as though he were the son of a duke or a brewer.  It must not, however, be imagined that Mr. Prosper was especially attached to his nephew.  When the boy left the Charter-house, where his uncle had paid his school-bills, he was sent to Cambridge, with an allowance of two hundred and fifty pounds a year, and that allowance was still continued to him, with an assurance that under no circumstances could it ever be increased.  At college he had been successful, and left Cambridge with a college fellowship.  He therefore left it with one hundred and seventy-five pounds added to his income, and was considered by all those at Buston Rectory to be a rich young man.

But Harry did not find that his combined income amounted to riches amid a world of idleness.  At Buston he was constantly told by his uncle of the necessity of economy.  Indeed, Mr. Prosper, who was a sickly little man about fifty years of age, always spoke of himself as though he intended to live for another half-century.  He rarely walked across the park to the rectory, and once a week, on Sundays, entertained the rectory family.  A sad occasion it generally was to the elder of the rectory children, who were thus doomed to abandon the loud pleasantries of their own home for the sober Sunday solemnities of the Hall.  It was not that the Squire of Buston was peculiarly a religious man, or that the rector was the reverse:  but the parson was joyous, whereas the other was solemn.  The squire,—­who never went to church, because he was supposed to be ill,—­made up for the deficiency by his devotional tendencies when the children were at the Hall.  He read through a sermon after dinner, unintelligibly and even inaudibly.  At this his brother-in-law, who had an evening service in his own church, of course never was present; but Mrs. Annesley and the girls were there, and the younger children.  But Harry Annesley had absolutely declined; and his uncle having found out that he never attended the church service, although he always left the Hall with his father, made this a ground for a quarrel.  It at last came to pass that Mr. Prosper, who was jealous and irritable, would hardly speak to his nephew; but the two hundred and fifty pounds went on, with many bickerings on the subject between the parson and the squire.  Once, when the squire spoke of discontinuing it, Harry’s father reminded him that the young man had been brought up in absolute idleness, in conformity with his uncle’s desire.  This the squire denied in strong language; but Harry had not hitherto run loudly in debt, nor kicked over the traces very outrageously; and as he absolutely must be the heir, the allowance was permitted to go on.