I remembered the answer of the old housekeeper at the parsonage, when I had asked to see the clergyman. "This, then, was his father's residence?"

     "Aye; old Mr. Rivers lived here, and his father, and grandfather, and gurt (great) grandfather afore him."

     "The name, then, of that gentleman, is Mr. St. John Rivers?"

     "Aye; St. John is like his kirstened name."

     "And his sisters are called Diana and Mary Rivers?"

     "Yes."

     "Their father is dead?"

     "Dead three weeks sin' of a stroke."

     "They have no mother?"

     "The mistress has been dead this mony a year."

     "Have you lived with the family long?"

     "I've lived here thirty year. I nursed them all three."

     "That proves you must have been an honest and faithful servant. I will say so much for you, though you have had the incivility to call me a beggar."