ABSTRACT
General brierley had very definite ideas as to how a gentleman should live, and in the realisation of them had surrounded himself with many possessions, two houses, a wife, two daughters and a son who should follow in his footsteps. When he retired and found his income reduced by two-thirds, he clung to all his possessions, for without them he felt that he could not maintain his position as a gentleman. His son married early and wisely and, when his father looked to him for assistance in those difficulties which beset a gentleman, quarrelled with him, transferred himself to another regiment and went to India. Of the two daughters, one was pretty and attractive to men, and to her whims and desires the other, Barbara, was sacrificed. When the General’s difficulties grew to such proportions that he had to rid himself of one of his possessions, he decided that Barbara must go out into the world to earn her living. She had had only the most foolish kind of education and possessed no craft nor art nor marketable accomplishment. Further, she was a lady and therefore cut off from the practice of many trades. She was very religious and solved the problem by returning to a girlish aspiration and becoming a nun. She thought no ill of her father, who protested his affection and bemoaned their harsh necessity. He took her to the station and paid for her third-class ticket.
