CHAPTER I.
In the county town of a certain shire there lived (about forty years
ago) one Mr. Wilkins, a conveyancing attorney of considerable standing.
The certain shire was but a small county, and the principal town in it
contained only about four thousand inhabitants; so in saying that Mr.
Wilkins was the principal lawyer in Hamley, I say very little, unless I add
that he transacted all the legal business of the gentry for twenty miles
round. His grandfather had established the connection; his father had
consolidated and strengthened it, and, indeed, by his wise and upright
conduct, as well as by his professional skill, had obtained for himself the
position of confidential friend to many of the surrounding families of
distinction. He visited among them in a way which no mere lawyer had
ever done before; dined at their tables--he alone, not accompanied by his
wife, be it observed; rode to the meet occasionally as if by accident,
although he was as well mounted as any squire among them, and was
often persuaded (after a little coquetting about "professional
engagements," and "being wanted at the office") to have a run with his
clients; nay, once or twice he forgot his usual caution, was first in at the
death, and rode home with the brush. But in general he knew his place; as
his place was held to be in that aristocratic county, and in those days.
Nor let be supposed that he was in any way a toadeater. He respected
himself too much for that. He would give the most unpalatable advice, if
need were; would counsel an unsparing reduction of expenditure to an
extravagant man; would recommend such an abatement of family pride as
paved the way for one or two happy marriages in some instances; nay,
what was the most likely piece of conduct of all to give offence forty years
ago, he would speak up for an unjustly-used tenant; and that with so much
temperate and well-timed wisdom and good feeling, that he more than
once gained his point. He had one son, Edward. This boy was the
secret joy and pride of his father\'s heart.