Odds and Ends by B.M. Croker

It was entirely owing to the death and defalcations of a trustee that my sister Linda and I -- heiresses in a small way -- awoke one morning to find ourselves penniless! We were orphans, and since our schooldays had made our home with a widowed aunt in the depth of the country, on the borders of an ancient village, within a parish whose extent was under a hundred acres. Aunt Sophy's house, which enjoyed the flattering name of "Heart's Delight," was a little old manor, with shallow oak stairs, low ceilings and heavy beams, standing in the midst of rich meadows and stately trees, and immediately surrounded by a delicious garden, with mulberry trees, and a stew-pond.

Here we three lived in complete harmony. Aunt Sophy was fifty-four, my sister Linda, temporary housekeeper and manager, was twenty-four -- she was engaged to Arthur Fortescue, a naval officer on the China station -- whilst I was but twenty, rather pretty, incorrigibly cheerful, and entirely fancy free.