At the time of the writing of the three letters, at which our story is supposed to begin, she was driven very hard for money.  Sir Felix was then twenty-five, had been in a fashionable regiment for four years, had already sold out, and, to own the truth at once, had altogether wasted the property which his father had left him.  So much the mother knew,—­and knew, therefore, that with her limited income she must maintain not only herself and daughter, but also the baronet.  She did not know, however, the amount of the baronet’s obligations;—­nor, indeed, did he, or any one else.  A baronet, holding a commission in the Guards, and known to have had a fortune left him by his father, may go very far in getting into debt; and Sir Felix had made...