How little do children dream of the alterations that older people's feelings towards each other undergo, when death has caused a transfer of property! Our arrival in Suffolk was by no means palatable to all my mother's relations." Mr.Tovell's widow had doubtless her suitable jointure, and probably a modest dower-residence to retire to; but Parham Hall had to be vacated, and Crabbe, having purchased its furniture, at once entered on possession.

The mere re-arrangement of the contents caused many heartburnings to the spinster-sister, who had known them under the old _regime_, and the alteration of the hanging of a picture would have made "Jacky," she averred, to turn in his grave.

Crabbe seems, however, to have shown so much good-feeling and forbearance in the matter that the old lady, after grimly boasting that she could "screw Crabbe up and down like a fiddle," was ultimately friendly, and her share of her brother's estate came in due course to Crabbe and his wife.

Moreover, the change of tenancy at the Hall was anything but satisfactory to the village generally.

Mr.Tovell had been much given to hospitality, and that of a convivial sort.