the propriety of lessening the expenditure of his residence, and Lady Aylmer always attended and probably directed these discussions; but it was found that nothing could be done.  Any attempt to remove a gamekeeper or a gardener would evidently throw the whole machinery of Aylmer Park out of gear.  If retrenchment was necessary Aylmer Park must be abandoned, and the glory of the Aylmers must be allowed to pale.  But things were not so had as that with Sir Anthony.  The gardeners, grooms, and gamekeepers were maintained; ten domestic servants sat down to four heavy meals in the servants’ hall every day, and Lady Aylmer contented herself with receiving little or no company, and with stingy breakfasts and bad dinners for herself and her husband and daughter.  By all this it must be seen that she did her duty as the wife of an English country gentleman, and properly maintained his rank as a baronet.

He was a heavy man, over seventy years of age, much afflicted with gout, and given to no pursuit on earth which was available for his comfort.  He had been a hunting man, and he had shot also; but not with that energy which induces a sportsman to carry on those amusements in opposition to the impediments of age.  He had been, and still was, a county magistrate; but he had never been very successful in the justice-room, and now seldom troubled the county with his judicial incompetence.  He had been fond of good dinners and good wine, and still, on occasions, would make attempts at enjoyment in that line; but the gout and Lady Aylmer together were too many for him, and he had but small opportunity for filling up the blanks of his existence out of the kitchen or cellar.  He was a big man, with a broad chest, and a red face, and a quantity of white hair and was much given to abusing his servants.  He took some pleasure in standing, with two sticks, on the top of the steps before his own front door, and railing at any one who came in his way.  But he could not do this when Lady Aylmer was by; and his dependents, knowing his habits, had fallen into an ill-natured way of deserting the side of the house which he frequented.  With his eldest son, Anthony Aylmer, he was not on very good terms; and though there was no positive quarrel, the heir did not often come to Aylmer Park.  Of his son Frederic he was proud and the best days of his life were probably those which Captain Aylmer spent at the house.  The table was then somewhat more generously spread, and this was an excuse for having up the special port in which he delighted.  Altogether his life was not very attractive; and though he bad been born to a baronetcy, and eight thousand a-year, and the possession of Aylmer Park, I do not think that he was, or had been, a happy man.