Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/124

 upon his own pleasures, and they were all of the selfish sort.

As my lord died without a will, he immediately entered upon possession of all. My lady having nothing at her disposal but her own fortune, and her jointure, which was to be sure very great; yet I thought it a sad thing to see her and her children turned out, as it were, of her own house, and obliged to go to seek a place to lay her head. But to her, alas! it was of no consequence where she went; the hand of death was on her, and in three months she followed my lord to the grave!

"I find I must pass over this," said Mrs Mason, wiping the tears from her eyes: "there is no need of distressing you with an account of all my sorrows. It was the least of them, that I found myself without a home! I had saved of my wages about one hundred and fifty pounds, which my lord's steward had placed out for me, at five per cent. in the public