Various things occurred to put off the doctor’s plan of laying by.  Mrs. Adams had an illness, that rendered a residence abroad necessary for a winter or two.  The eldest boy must go to Eton.  As their mamma was not at home, the little girls were sent to school.  Bad as Mrs. Adams’s management was, it was better than no management at all.  If the doctor had given up his entertainments, his “friends” would have said he was going down in the world, and his patients would have imagined him less skilful; besides, notwithstanding his increased expenditure, he found he had ample means, not to lay by, but to spend on without debt or difficulty.  Sometimes his promise to his brother would cross his mind, but it was soon dispelled by what he had led himself to believe was the impossibility of attending to it then.  When Mrs. Adams returned, she complained that the children were too much for her nerves and strength, and her husband’s tenderness induced him to yield his favourite plan of bringing up his girls under his own roof.  In process of time two little ones were added to the four, and still his means kept pace with his expenses; in short, for ten years he was a favourite with the class of persons who render favouritism fortune.  It is impossible, within the compass of a tale, to trace the minutiae of the brothers’ history; the children of both were handsome, intelligent, and in the world’s opinion, well educated; John’s eldest daughter was one amongst a thousand for beauty of mind and person; hers was no glaring display of figure or information.  She was gentle, tender, and affectionate; of a disposition sensitive and attuned to all those rare virtues in her sphere, which form at once the treasures of domestic life and the ornaments of society.  She it was who soothed the nervous irritability of her mother’s sick chamber and perpetual peevishness, and graced her father’s drawing-room by a presence that was attractive to both old and young, from its sweetness and unpretending modesty; her two younger sisters called forth all her tenderness, from the extreme delicacy of their health; but her brothers were even greater objects of solicitude—­handsome spirited lads—­the eldest waiting for a situation, promised, but not given; the second also waiting for a cadetship; while the youngest was still at Eton.  These three young men thought it incumbent on them to evince their belief in their father’s prosperity by their expenditure, and accordingly they spent much more than the sons of a professional man ought to spend under any circumstances.  Of all waitings, the waiting upon patronage is the most tedious and the most enervating to the waiter.  Dr. Adams felt it in all its bitterness when his sons’ bills came to be paid; but he consoled himself, also, for his dilatoriness with regard to a provision for his daughters—­it was impossible to lay by while his children were being educated; but the moment his eldest sons got the appointments they were promised, he would certainly save, or insure, or do something.