said the lady, "but we are not to think of their

expectations: the question is, what you can afford to do."

"Certainly--and I think I may afford to give them five

hundred pounds a-piece. As it is, without any addition

of mine, they will each have about three thousand pounds

on their mother's death--a very comfortable fortune

for any young woman."

"To be sure it is; and, indeed, it strikes me that

they can want no addition at all. They will have ten

thousand pounds divided amongst them. If they marry,

they will be sure of doing well, and if they do not,

they may all live very comfortably together on the interest

of ten thousand pounds."

"That is very true, and, therefore, I do not know whether,

upon the whole, it would not be more advisable to do

something for their mother while she lives, rather than

for them--something of the annuity kind I mean.--My sisters

would feel the good effects of it as well as herself.

A hundred a year would make them all perfectly comfortable."

His wife hesitated a little, however, in giving

her consent to this plan.

"To be sure," said she, "it is better than parting with

fifteen hundred pounds at once. But, then, if Mrs. Dashwood

should live fifteen years we shall be completely taken in."

"Fifteen years! my dear Fanny; her life cannot

be worth half that purchase."

"Certainly not; but if you observe, people always

live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them;

and she is very stout and healthy, and hardly forty.

An annuity is a very serious business; it comes over

and over every year, and there is no getting rid

of it. You are not aware of what you are doing.

I have known a great deal of the trouble of annuities;

for my mother was clogged with the payment of three

to old superannuated servants by my father's will,

and it is amazing how disagreeable she found it.

Twice every year these annuities were to be paid; and then