^■iiA^,.>- ^ XNV^ \n- ^ v\ ^^r vV^" '^l\^n^^"^ V' ^x ,4 Av\"^V^"^N -^ LI B RARY OF THE UN IVERSITY or ILLI NOIS 82S MT52c Digitized by the Internet Arcinive in 2009 with funding from University, of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/countyversuscoun01monr mm €OUOTY VERS%j|q|gJOTBR ^ ftobd. THEODORE RUSSELL MOXRO AUTHOR OF THE VAXDELEURS OF RED TOR," " LOVE LOST, BUT HONOUR WON, ETC., ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, PICXMDILLY. 1878. [All nights Beservetl.^ ^ a ^A3 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. <'H AFTER ' 1A(.E I. MISS PRISCILLA ------ 1 II. MISS PRISCILLA PAYS A VISIT OF STATE - S III. MISS PRISCILLA OX " COrXTY" AND " COUNTER" 1 8 IV. MISS PRISCILLA RECOLNTS THE ROMANX'E OF TOM ROSS ------- 32 V. VICTOR ROSS, TIMBER-MERCHANT - - - 42 VL MISS PRISCILLA INCURS A HEAVY RESPONSI- BILITY 52 VIL LORD AND LADY MARGATE - - - - 63 viiL THE heir-presu:mptive - - - -GO w IX. the brooms of buncombe - - - - 81 ^ X. THE HOWARDS OF ARUNDEL LODGE - - 94 XL A CHAPTER OF \ULGARITIES - - - 101 ^V^ XIL MISS PRISCILLA UNLOCKS THE OLD BUREAU- 114 '^ XIIL BARKER DECIDES ON WHAT IS BEST FOR MISS PRISCILLA 123 ^ XIV. THE duke's daughter BUILDS A CASTLE IN ^ THE AIR 131 IV CONTENTS. • Trevor's daughter, and the granddaughter of an English Duke. Victor's free and easy bearing displeased her, and she drew her hand away with a httle air of surprise, which was not lost upon Miss Priscilla. 4—2 UBRARTf UNIVERSITY OF ILUNOV CHAPTER VI. MISS PRISCILLA INCURS A HEAVY RESPONSIBILITY. ISS Trevor would like to see 'the wilderness/ Victor," said his sister. "I am so sorry my sprain prevents my showing her all my favourite haunts. While you are away, T will provide some tea. Be sure you show off my myrtle grove ; I am especially proud of it," she added, to Diana ; '' this is one of the few places in England where myrtles flourish to perfection in the open air." " I shall stay and talk to Eva, while you PKISCILLA INCUES A RESPONSIBILITY. 53 are gone, Diana," said Miss Priscilla ; ^^ my old bones object to scrambling, and I am rather tired." " Our life in Canada gave us strange tastes as to how gardens should be kept or rather unkept,*' said Victor, as the pair wandered off towards the '' wilderness ;" '' and my fathers hatred for all conventionality and formalism, has set his dislike for trim flower- beds and neat borders. Anything that will grow in the open air in this climate, is allowed to spring up in the ' wilderness,' unless it has properties which poison its neiofhbours." " Free Trade even among the plants !" observed Diana ; ^^ my cousin tells rue those are Black Kock principles with regard to most things." "My father and Miss Priscilla have had a standing pohtical quarrel all their hves," answered the young man, " but they do not 54 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. seem to be any the worse friends in con- sequence." *' Is Mr. Ross away from home ?" asked Diana. *' No ; but he is unusually busy to-day, and will not return till late from Olton Priors. A large consignment of timber has just arrived from Canada, and we have been obliged to enlarge our yard for its recep- tion," The allusion to the timber-yard grated on Diana — she scarcely knew why. Young people are always intensely aristocratic, and Diana was very young. Taking an interest in Miss Koss's garden was one thing, but a discussion on the subject of the timber- trade was another. She maintained, therefore, what she meant for a dignified silence. Victor Ross, however, either believed, or affected to believe, that her limited powers of conversation were but PRISCILLA TXCURS A RESPONSIBILITY. 55 the combined results of shyness and youth. He pointed out all the prettiest nooks and dells of the ^' wilderness " to her, showed her peeps in the woods through which tiny cascades made by the river could be seen leaping over the granite boulders that formed the bed ' of the stream. He asked her questions about her travels, her life in Florence, and her opinion of various well- known chef-cPceuvres in the galleries of Italy ; but the more he talked, the more silent the girl became. Whatever the subject of dis- cussion, a very few sentences were enough to show Diana that her companion knew what he was talking about, and that she did not ; and by the time they reached the grove of myrtles, she had succeeded in revealing to him such deplorable depths of ignorance on every subject he had touched upon in turn, that the poor little girl felt painfully humili- ated in her self-esteem. 56 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Diana had started from the Priory with a vague idealin her mind that if the Rosses proved nice people, according to her own views of what made people nice, she would see what she could do to place them upon some higher rung of the social ladder than the one they now occupied. *' After all, their mother was a clergyman's daughter," this little aristocrat had said to herself, '' on one side, at least, they must be gentlepeople f but, somehow, one afternoon's visit to the Rosses had scattered Diana's visions of patronage to the winds; Eva's repose of manner, even while it irritated her, had its compensating charm ; but that Victor Ross should seem to survey her calmly from a lofty eminence of intellectual manhood, and treat her like any little village girl whom his sister might have asked to tea, was altogether too much for Diana Trevor's equanimity. In Italy she had been accustomed to every species PRISCILLA INCURS A RESPONSIBILITY. 57 of fulsome flattery, to complimentary speeches full of superlatives, and an eager anticipation of her smallest whim ; but this bearded blue- eyed giant corrected her mistakes, suggested alterations in her pronunciation of English names, and altogether took her off her feet, so to speak, whether she would or no. Yet he was not rude ! on the contrary, his manner was courtesy itself, but it was the courtesy of nature's gentleman, not of the polished man of the world, and Diana had not seen much of the former sort in the foreign cities in which she had chiefly lived. " You must let me gather you a bunch of myrtles," Victor said, as they stood within the lovely grove. " I dare say they are common enough in Italy, but we seldom get them in such perfection in England as we have them here." *' They remind me of more sunny climates," 58 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. said Diana, " though I cannot complain on such a bright June day as this." She held out her hand for the flowers, and as she took them she glanced up at his face. His keen blue eyes were fixed so searchingly upon her that she turned away in hot con- fusion, and buried her blushing face in the myrtles she held. Yet there was nothing in his gaze she could resent. It was simply earnest — nothing more — yet Diana did resent it, in that sort of fashion that a spoiled child resents restraint. She had meant to patronise this man, this grandson of a village carpenter, but somehow she was vaguely aware, even in this their first interview, that in this big, broad-shouldered young Saxon, she had not only met her match, but her master. Diana sniffed at the flowers, said a word or two of thanks and admiration for the beauty of the blossoms, and heartily wished she might throw the whole bunch of them PEISCLLLA INCURS A RESPONSIBILITY'. 59 into the river, along with their donor, if only she had been strong enough. But she kept calm. She knew that Victor Koss was watchinof her with a sort of amused admira- tion, which produced in her such exasperation that she lono^ed to box his ears. The man did not smile with his lips, but she saw the laughter in his eyes, and she knew that he had seen through her mock dignity, that he had watched her performance on social stilts, in fact, and was vastly amused with the result. '* Well, what do you think of Black Eock, Diana ?" said Miss Priscilla, as, after tea, they started back to the Priory. ''I think it lovely, quite lovely," said Diana. '' Eva is a sweet girl, is she not ?" continued Miss Priscilla. "Very sweet indeed," was the somewhat smartly-delivered answer. 60 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Miss Priscilla was quite aware that some- thing had gone wrong somewhere, but she persevered in her well-meant attempts to probe for the offending thorn. " She is like her mother," resumed Miss Priscilla; "Victor is more like his father." " So I should suppose," was Diana's abiiipt reply. " Why ! my dear ! you have never seen either parent, have you ?" said the old lady, slightly taken aback by the sharpness of the girl's remarks. " Never, but you told me Mr. Ross was the son of a carpenter in Olton Priors, and I think Mr. Victor Ross seems to be a chip ofthe old block." " He is not very polished perhaps," said Miss Priscilla in a hurt tone ; '' but like his father he is brave and honest and true, qualities much wanted in this world of ours, my dear Diana. I only wish more of the PRISCILLA INCURS A RESPONSIBILITY. 61 young men of the day were on the same pattern as AHctor Ross." " Well, for my part," said Diana pertly, and flushing rosy red, ^' I think one man of the kind is quite enough, and I am heartily glad that the other young men of my ac- quaintance are of a very different stamp ! But forgive me, Cousin Priscilla, I had forgotten you were so fond of the Rosses," she added, as the old lady almost stopped her donkeys in astonishment at this out- burst. " You asked me for my opinion, and you know I am a very outspoken girl. Mr. Ross, junior, seems to be a very worthy young man, blessed with a very excellent opinion of his own capacities. If his success be equal to his aspirations, he will doubtless make himself a name in the world. Still I do not think he quite belongs to our class, you know, and I dare say it would do him no harm if somebody told him so." 62 COUNT V VERSUS COUNTER. For a moment Miss Priscilla looked utterly shocked and grieved, and her nose twitched defiantly in Diana's direction; but something in Diana's face caused the old lady's expression to change to one of amused concern. She was no fool, this Miss Pris- cilla, and she was keen at reading the signs of the times from the faces of her acquaint- ances. " Barker," said she to her maid, when Beer had taken the donkeys to the stable, '^ I have made a great fool of myself this day." '' As I am a living woman," said she to herself aloud, in the privacy of her own room, " those two young people have fallen in love at first sight, and all that comes of it will be visited on my head." CHAPTER YII. LORD AND LADY MARGATE. l3^ he Earl of Margate was the greatest l^ "county" magnate in the neigh- i m bourhood of Olton Priors. It was on the score of birth alone, however, that he enjoyed that distinction. His estates were not large. He had run through every- thing that was not entailed, and he had made a foohsh marriage with a girl beneath him in most respects, and liis equal only in an unlimited capacity for spending money they could ill afford to part with. 64 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Lord Margate had been extremely wild. He had spent what once had been a noble fortune, and had ruined what once had been a noble constitution. Though not much more than thirty, Lord Margate was a wreck of his former self "A short life and a merry one," had always been his motto, though he now seemed determined to make what amends he could for a career which he bitterly repented. Some three years previous to the arrival of Mr. Trevor at the Priory, Lord Margate had brought a wife to Coddesley, his ances- tral seat. Nobody exactly knew who she was. Every sort of rumour had been afloat about her ; but none of them had been con- firmed. Some said that she had been an actress, but those who were well acquainted with the stage, denied that she had ever trodden any boards, metropolitan or pro- vincial. Others afiirmed that she had been LORD AND LADY MARGATE. 65 in a milliner's establishment in Kegent Street, and others again that she was the daughter of a Dublin policeman. That she was a woman of low origin, no one doubted, hut no one had been able to prove anything against her moral character, and one by one the families in the neighbourhood had allowed themselves to leave their cards at Coddesley. There was nothing about the new Countess to which people could exactly take exception. She was rather silly and rather weak ; she dressed in the extreme of the prevalent fashion, and changed the colour of her hair from year to year ; but in all this there was notliing which could banish her from society. She seemed fond of her husband, rode well to hounds, patronised the local balls, and headed all the subscription lists for charitable purposes. In the absence of more trans- cendent quahties, she was allowed full credit VOL. I. 5 66 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. for such virtues as she did possess. Gradually the county people had admitted her more and more closely into their exclusive circle, and as yet nothing had transpired to shake the confidence of the other leaders of society in that part of the world. Lady Margate, though far from being a genius, was no fool in worldly matters. She knew well enough that she had been an object of suspicion on her first arrival in the county, and she was careful to conciliate all sets with a view to the more firm establish- ment of her position. She openly avowed that she was the orphan daughter of a farmer in the midland counties. No one had ever yet appeared on the scene to contradict this assertion, and her own account of herself and her antecedents had gradually been allowed and accepted by the majority of the people who visited her. Partly from inclination, partly with a view LORD AND LADY MARGATE. 67 to strengthening her position, Lady Margate had very heartily joined the extreme High Church party, who were just then beginning* to make themselves conspicuous under the name of Ritualists. Mr. Golightly, the Rector of Olton Priors, an easy-going clergyman of the old school of country parsons, was wont to speak of himself as a man of '^ moderate but sound views." No one of course knew what this might mean, and in an out-of-the- way parish like Olton Priors, no one took the trouble to inquire. There had been two. long services on the Sunday, one in the morning, and one in the evening, with a lengthy and harmless address tacked on to the end of each, from time immemorial, and Mr. Golightly had been careful not to give offence by making trifling alterations in his predecessor s programme. On week days the church had been shut up, even the choir practices having been held in the village 5—2 68 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. schoolroom ; but the tide of progress had at last surged up even to Olton Priors. A new church had been built, which, though called a chapel of ease, was a chapel of any- thing but ease to the Rector of Olton Priors. A curate was appointed, nominally under the direction of Mr. Golightly, who soon took the reins into his own hands, and in less than no time upset the religious con- victions of half the community. This curate was the Rev. Celestine Channing, a young priest of the most advanced theological views; and in Lady Margate Mr. Channing had found a staunch and faithful ally. CHAPTER YIII. THE HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE. ORD and Lady Margate were child- less. Lord Margate's brother, the Honourable Charles Norman, was heir-presumptive to the title and estates. Charhe Norman, as he was always called in his own set, had been in a crack cavalry reofiment. and on attainino- the rank of Captain had sold out, shortly after his brother's marriage. He spent much of his time at Coddesley : he was sincerely attached to his brother, he did not dislike his brother's 70 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. wife, he liked the " happy-go-hicky " style of their menage^ and he found plenty of amuse- ment, at very little cost, in the neighbourhood around Shaleford and Olton Priors. He was now staying at Coddesley, and there, as far as he knew, he meant to remain during the summer and autumn months. Both in person and character the brothers were most unUke. Lord Margate had been a handsome boy, fair and blue eyed and gracefully built ; but riotous living had ren- dered his complexion coarse, and whatever good looks he had once boasted were now totally undiscernible in the dissipated but still distinguished-looking nobleman, who was at the head of society in Olton Priors. His brother, on the other hand, was a dark, clean-shaven, soldierly man, who looked the very ideal of a smart cavalry officer. He was well set up, Avell groomed, athletic, rather above the middle height, with a heavy dark THE HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE. 71 moustache and a pair of clear bright brown eyes. Charlie Norman was no milksop, but he had never been a fast man, and fast men were his detestation. He knew the value of health ; he lived sparingly, he seldom drank anything stronger than water ; he was out of doors all day long, and was devoted to every manly and healthful exercise. He was not intellectual, but he was neither ignorant noi stupid. He had liked his profession fairly, but mess-room society had bored him, and ten years' service had been as much as he had cared to stand. He had been at Hugby with Victor Koss, but of late years their paths had lain apart, and they had not met since they had grown to manhood ; for, until Lord Margate's marriage, Coddesley had been shut up, and Ross had been absent in Canada on such occasions as Norman had been his brother's guest. 72 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. The advent of the Trevors had caused no little talk in Olton Priors circles. The last possessor of the Priory had been, for many years before his death, a bed-ridden invalid, so that practically the Priory had played no part in society since the days when Miss Priscilla was a girl, a very great many years ago. Lord Margate was aware that Philip Trevor, in his young days, had been the darling of the most exclusive sets. His singular good looks, his ancient pedigree, his excellent connection, and his freedom from the grosser vices of human nature, had com- bined to give him the entree into the inner- most coteries of the most exclusive society in Europe. His marriage with a daughter of the excellent Duke of Wessex had placed him on a pinnacle of fashion, and had been a pledge to the outside world of the young man's intrinsic nobility of character and THE HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE. 73 moral worth j for the Duke and Duchess of Wessex had been amonof the titled few who were wont to consult their daughters' happi- ness before everything; and had preferred good husbands to brilliant connections. Now Lord Margate had not been admitted to the Wessex set, even though he was an earl with a fair rent-roll, and a good match for one of many daughters whose dowries were extremely small. He had occasionally met Lady Adela's younger sisters, however, and was keenly alive to the advantage it would be to his wife, if Lady Adela took her into intimate acquaintance. Beyond this reason for wishing to be on good terms Ts^ith the Trevors, Lord Margate was extremely anxious, not only that his brother should marry, but that he should marry well, and thus build up again the fortunes of his house, which he himself had done so much to pull down. 7i COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. From all that report said of Diana Trevor, Lord Margate had made up his mind that she was just the girl to suit his brother in every particular. She had been described to him as young, pretty, piquante, sensible, and an aristocrat to the core. An alliance with the house of Trevor would bring much county influence into the Margate family, while a connection with the house of Wessex would immediately shoot Captain Charles Norman into the very centre of the most distinguished social and political circles in the land. Childless himself, Lord Margate earnestly desired to be assured in his own lifetime that the Margate title and estates would be pre- served in his own immediate family. After his brother, the nearest of kin was a cousin, whom he had never seen, but whose career had been even more disreputable than his own — a handsome profligate scamp, who had THE HEIR-PKESUMPTIVE. 75 gone from bad to worse these many years, and had for some time past disappeared entirely beneath society's horizon. When last heard of this young man was at the Grand Hotel in Paris, passing himself off as hiis cousin. Captain Norman, only brother to the Earl of Margate, and before that his aliases had been innumerable, and his person well known to the authorities at Scotland Yard. Lord Margate had been a tvue, but he had never been a scoundrel. He dreaded lest ^ome chance should cut short that only brother's life, who was not only so dear to him personally, but who alone stood between him and the unscrupulous adventurer who was still plotting mischief somewhere under the sun. That his brother should marry well and bring his wife to Coddesley, and rear his heirs in the midst of their future inheritance, was the dearest wish of Lord 76 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Margate's heart. He knew that his own days . were numbered. He must see his brother married before his own end came. Under these circumstances Lord Margate displayed considerable anxiety to be the first to welcome the Trevors to their new home ; Lady Margate, for reasons of her own, was equally anxious to be as civil as possible, and on the day following Diana's visit with Miss Priscilla to Black Kock, the Margates, accompanied by Captain Norman, paid a state visit to the Priory. The Trevors were all at home. Lady Adela, forewarned by Miss Priscilla, was perfectly courteous, but refrained from giving any loophole for more cordial intimacy. The visit passed off with stately gravity on all sides, leaving the Trevors free to improve the acquaintance or not, as might suit their inclination hereafter. " Captain Norman is a capital fellow, so THE HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE. 11 far as I can judge," said Mr. Trevor, as soon as the visitors had departed ; '' I think he and I will get on together." " Lady Margate is second-rate," said Lady Adela decisively, ''and is certainly not a gentlewoman, but she is much better than I expected, and would pass muster well enouQfh in a crowd." *' She is undoubtedly a very pretty woman still," observed her husband, '' and must have been most attractive some half-dozen years ago. If she did not get herself up so, she would look far better than she does." '^ Lord Margate devoted himself to you, Diana," said her mother, '' how did you get on with him ?" " I liked him," replied Diana decisively ; *' I liked him very much; he seems so thoroughly unselfish ; he talked mostly about his wife and his brother, and if he 78 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. to be believed, he is wonderfully attached to them both." '* He looks wretchedly ill," observed Lady Adela ; '^ he cannot be long for this world." ^^He is utterly used up," added Mr. Trevor. ^^ What a contrast his brother is to him ! Bright, lively, vigorous, and hand- some ! I wonder that young man has been allowed to remain a bachelor !" *' I suppose from what you say you mean to improve your acquaintance with him 1" said his wife. '^ Certainly I do ; I am never dull, my dear, while you and Diana are my com- panions, but I found Captain Norman at- tractive and sympathetic, and I hope we shall see a good deal of him. I always prefer the society of men younger than myself." '' Well, it is a pity that the others are not more desirable acquaintances ; they mean to be civil evidently, but I am sure I shall THE HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE. 79 never really get on with Lady Margate, nor will Diana." ** From all I hear there are very few people hereabouts of our own class at aU, Adela. Beggars must not be choosers, and in the matter of society we are beggars in this out-of-the-way corner of the world. We need not be intimate at Coddesley, but I think we had better return their visit shortly. Civihty costs nothing." " As I said before, I am agreeably surprised in Lady Margate," said Lady Adela ; '* she is weak — one can see that at a glance — and she is second-rate ; she may be fast, but she does not give me the impression of being worse than that ; so I am ready to return the visit when you please. I suppose we shall have a round of calls to make next week." Diana said httle, but she thought a good deal, and her thoughts just now came to 80 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. about the following : " I am to become Mrs. Charles Norman now, and the Countess of Margate presently. Coddesley and Olton Priors joined together will form an influential landed property. Well ! we shall see what we shall see !" CHAPTER IX. THE BROOMS OF BUNCOMBE. HERE are oTacles and oTades in society everywhere, but perhaps nowhere is the difference between these OTades so subtle or so much insisted on as in a small country town like Olton Priors. Mr. Broom, of Buncombe, had been '^ some- thing in the city," nobody could quite say what. That he had been a successful specu- lator was apparent^ for he boasted of having gone to London with the traditional three- VOL. I. 6 82 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. halfpence in his pocket, and of having^ amassed a vast fortune upon this extremely modest foundation. But whether Mr. Broom's line of business had been '^ army accoutrements," ^^ anti-tartar tooth-brushes,'* or " guano," had ahvays been, and still remained, mere matter of conjecture to the world of Olton Priors. Mr. Broom's allusions to the original three- halfpence and their results were pompous, but general, spoken rather with the idea of impressing his audience with his business abilities, than of giving them any hint by which they might be enabled to follow his prosperous example. Mr. Broom was self-contained, self-edu« cated, self-made, and as such he deserved much praise. But the old saying that '^ you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," held good in Mr. Broom's case, and, despite his money and his smattering of THE BROOMS OF BUNCOMBE. S3 modem literature, and his assumed taste for the fine arts, Mr. Broom of Buncombe was what Mr. Broom of three-halfpence had been, an aggressive, pushing, blatant snob. Mr. Broom was not superficially vulgar. People had to rub ofi" some worldly poHsh before they could see the genuine article in all its unadorned coarseness beneath. Mr. Broom, seen in his yellow chariot, was a ty23e of labour- won prosperity, and as such Avas pointed out by parents to their sons as a person to be imitated on the go-and -do-like- wise principle ; but Mr. Broom in conversa- tion soon became quite another individual, a purse-proud, tuft-hunting, insufferable ]Drig. The wife of Mr. Broom's bosom was quite worthy of Mr. Broom. She dressed magnifi- cently, received ostentatiously, patronised everything without discrimination, and every- body without tact or grace. Two sprigs only of this rank tree had 6—2 84 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. reached maturity — Genista and Plantagenet • — the latter more generally known to fame as Planty Broom. Genista, a young woman of some five-and twenty years, was tacitly acknowledged to be a failure by the Broom family. She was extremely plain, awkward in her movements, and apparently stupid. In reality, she had more brains than either her mother or brother, but they took a long time to make themselves apparent to the outer world, and ooncealed as they were behind a heavy brow and a lack-lustre pair of light grey eyes, it was not strange that she should be thought the reverse of intelligent. Genista Broom was a kind-hearted girl, much given to good works, charitable, pitiful, and devout. She attached herself readily to those Avho showed hpr kindness, of which she received very little at home, for Mr. Broom and his wife were not tolerant of failures. She co- THE BROOMS OF BUXCOMBE. 85 operated right heartily with every parochial scheme of improvement, she aided the Misses Golightly among the poor, and she volunteered to play the organ and teach the choir at St. Mark's chajDel-of-ease, where the Rev. Celestine Channino- officiated daily. Planty Broom, on the other hand, was a sprig of quite another bent. He was a year younger than Genista, and the spoiled dar- ling of both his parents. He was good- looking after a fashion. His mother con- sidered him the handsomest man in the neighbourhood. He was slight, fair, of middle height, with a pair of keen grey eyes and a small, straw-coloured moustache and imperial, which latter he " sported " in virtue of his assumed French descent from the House of Anjou. He dressed '' horsily," was smart in his actions, and slangy in his tone and conversation. With his grooms 8G COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. and liis father's tenantry he was rather a favourite than otherwise, for he was open- hearted, lavish in his expenditure, fond of horses, and possessed of a certain keenness which never fails to tickle the fancy of the agricultural poor. To such he was not arrogant, and they looked on his stupendous vanity as being " spicy " and " smart ;" but to gentlemen Planty Broom was the quintessence of an underbred coxcomb, and, if anything, more unendurable than his father. Between Lady Margate and Genista Broom an acquaintance had sprung up some time before, which had now ripened into intimacy. Lady Margate had been lonely, so had Genista. Lady Margate had been obliged to endure many coolnesses and im- pertinences from " county " dames who resented her intrusion among them, so had Genista. Lady Margate had gradually de- THE BROOMS OF BUNCOMBE. 87 veloped into an extreme Ritualist, and Genista's feelings had ever carried her in the same direction. But above and beyond these reasons, there were times when Lady Margate's highly- strung nervous tempera- ment would dwell continually upon past indiscretions, known to herself alone, until solitude almost drove her Avild. She had no children to take her thoughts off herself, and, with the exception of her husband's brother, no one had ever been known to be invited to stay at Goddesley. At such times Genista Broom's society was a perfect god- send to Lady Margate. The girl was quite shrewd enouo-h to undei'stand what sort of past Lady Margate's had probably been, and she had sufficient tact to be able to fix her friend's attention upon a more hopeful futm-e, without asking impertinent questions about what had perhaps best be buried in oblivion. 88 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Let it not be supposed, however, that Genista Broom had any suspicion that Lady Margate's early career had been one of actual immorality. At quite an early period of their friendship, Lady Margate had effectually prevented even the birth of such a suspicion, by forestalling rumour, and giving it the lie direct in so emphatic and plausible a manner, that Genista Broom felt completely at rest about the matter. That there were pages in Lady Margate's life turned down. Genista felt as a matter of course, but she possessed little of the curiosity of her sex, and was best pleased not to be made the recipient of a story which doubtless had its dark and unhappy side. For his wife's sake Lord Margate endured the Brooms. He even liked Genista, and was grateful to her for her staunch fidelity to his wife ; but he found it hard to behave with more than distant courtesy to the THE BROOMS OF BUNCOMBE. 81) father, while a visit from the flippant cock- sparrow of a son he always vowed had a tendency to shorten his days, from the undue repression of his desire to kick him down- stairs. Rich as the Brooms were, their position in the neighbourhood was far from being- assured. They oscillated constantly between '^ county " and ^' counter," their intimacy with Lady Margate on the one hand giving them a lift above their own sphere, while their origin and antecedents weighed them down heavily on the other. When Mrs. Broom had heard from her daughter that the Margates had called upon the Trevors, she determined to lose no time in following Lady Margate's example. Gorgeously arrayed, with her husband, her daughter, and her son occupying the other seats in the great yellow chariot, Mrs. Broom dashed up with much parade and display to 90 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. the doors of the Priory, on the day suc- ceeding the Margates' visit ; but the Trevors were " not at home." Now, as it happened, the Trevors were, really not at home, for they had gone into Olton Priors to see Miss Priscilla, and to make the acquaintance of Beer, Barker, Sholto the cob, the retriever, and the tortoise-shell Tom. Still it was vexatious that they should not have been at home, the more so as Planty Broom had repeated, for his parents' edification on the drive, a con- versation he had held that morning with Mr. Henry Howard, of Arundel Lodge, in which the latter gentleman had given the former to understand that he thought the Brooms should wait to see if their acquaint- ance was desired by the people at the Priory, and that in his opinion, if they did call, they would probably get snubbed. To have to wait an indefinite period, before THE BROOMS OF BUNCOMBE. 91 Mr. Howard's assertion could be disdainfully contradicted, was grating to Mrs. Broom's self-esteem, of which she owned a very large amount. " My dear," said Mr. Broom, as the yellow chariot rolled down the gravel road to the Priory gates, " talking of the Howards, we have not been there for months. I have reasons, as you know, for wishing to be civil to them ; suppose we call at Arundel Ijodge on the way home T *' Now is your time, governor," said Plantagenet, '-'for I know they are all out." "All the better for us," said his father, '^ not but that you might have let us find out so pleasant a fact for ourselves." '•As you know they are not at home, I have no great objection to leaving cards, Mr. Broom, but I do Avish you would drop those low people altogether. Of course in 92 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. London you could not help yourself, as you owed him so much years ago ; but down here it is quite a different thing. We shall never belong exclusively to the best sets as long as we keep these awful Howards on our visiting list." ^^ But, mamma," suggested Genista, ^^ surely it was greatly through Mr. Howard that papa made his fortune, was it not ?" ^^ Of course it was, my dear ; you don't suppose we sliould continue to know any- thing about such people if it had not been for business connections ; but even gratitude has its limits, and I cannot see why our career in this county should be weighted by such an incubus as the Howard family." '' My dear Belinda," said Mr. Broom re- provingly to his wife, '* it is quite impossible that we should cut the Howards. It is unfortunate that they should have settled down just in our neighbourhood ; but as they THE BEOOMS OF BUNCOMBE. 93 are here they must be endured. He was the :first man to give me a helping hand when I was a lad of sixteen, and he lent me a thou- sand pounds when I so nearly ' smashed ' at the time of Genista's birth. That was why I asked him to be Genista's godfather, and you cannot say that he has not done his duty by her from a worldly point of view, at any rate." Nor, considering that Mr. Howard had given his god-daughter a thousand pounds on the dav of her christeninor, could Mrs. Broom deny her husband's statement, so she only shrugged her shoulders, and remained silent for the rest of the drive. CHAPTEE X. THE HOWARDS OF ARUNDEL LODGE. RUNDEL LODGE was a Cockney ' villa, standing in some ten acres of ground, about half a mile out of Olton Priors. It was built of red brick. On its roof were countless cupolas and minarets ; on its terraces huge urns of white stone ; at its portals carved lions of granite. Its architecture was a patchwork of every con- ceivable style, and its owners had succeeded in rendering their residence one of the most hideous eye-sores in the neighbourhood. THE HOWARDS OF ARCJNDEL LODGE. 95 As Miss Priscilla had informed the Tre- vors, Mr. Howard had been a provision- dealer in Holborn. He had stood behind his own counter in an apron and shirt-sleeves, and had been assisted in the shop by his wife. When Billy Broom and his three halfpence had first come to London, Henry Howard had been the man who had first put him in the way of making those three halfpence threepence. Billy Broom had become Howard's shop-boy, and had swept out that shop in Holborn morning after morning, and had been given his breakfast by Mrs. Howard's own fat hands, when that sweeping had come to a satisfactory conclusion. Billy Broom had thriven in the world. Billy Broom was now William Broom, Esq., of Buncombe, and though still an impassable distance from being a gentleman, yet miles nearer being a '^county" man than the pro- 96 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. vision- dealer whose shop he had once swept out every day. Had Broom been either thin-skinned or other than smart and brisk in all the business of life, he would never have made the im- mense fortune he had amassed. He was equally smart and brisk when he found that his old master had bought ten acres of ground near Buncombe and Avas going to build a house upon them, and live there for the rest of his days. He went straight to Howard in a blunt and manly fashion and said to his face : " Now, sir, I have made my fortune and I have come down here to enjoy it. I wish my children to be ' county ' people, but if the * county ' knows that I swept out your shop, their noses will go into the air, and their €?«rds back again into their pockets. You, too, have daughters, whom you will wish to have every chance in good society. I am before you in this neighbourhood. I know several j)eople of position from the mere fact of being a landed proprietor. What I want you to do is to hold your tongue about the connection once existing between us, and I will hold mine about the provision shop in Holborn." To this Howard had agreed. Arundel Lodge had been built. The Brooms had called, and had asked the Howards to dinner. The Howards had returned the invitation, and for some time the two families had succeeded in hiding their bitter dis- trust and jealousy of one another in their own breasts. Broom and Howard indeed mio-ht have o got on together fairly well, had it not been for their wives ; but Mi's. Howard never forgot or forgave the present position of Mrs. Broom of Buncombe, the wife of the shop-boy who had once been thankful for VOL. I. 7 98 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. his bread and bacon in Holborn, while Mrs. !Broom never forgot that the Howards could at any moment '' split " as to Broom's humble origin, and overwhelm the family with ridi- cule and contempt. For everybody knows that to have become a millionaire through having been *' some- thing in the city," is one thing; but to be pointed at in the street as having been a provision- dealer's shop-boy is quite another. Howard was about ten years Broom's senior in age, and Broom was at this time iifty. Of Howard's elder children some had died, and one — a daughter — had married, and gone to live in Australia, where her husband had a sheep-run. He had no son living, and the two daughters who were now at home unmarried, had been born after Broom had left their father's service, and had set up in a small way for himself in some other business, which at any rate was THE HOWARDS OF ARUNDEL LODGE. 99 never talked about in Olton Priors. These daughters, therefore, were ignorant of the connection that once existed between the famihes, and Broom had on his side as care- fully concealed the truth from Genista and Plantagenet. Camilla Howard, the elder of Mr. Howard's daughters, was not far off thirty, while Pene- lope was about two years younger. They were both handsome, dashing girls, with plenty of spirit and health. They were both brunettes, with a great deal of colour, dark eyes and very ample figures. They had been educated in Paris. They dressed well, rode well, sang well. They were given to loud laughter certainly, and their manners were decidedly free and easy ; but some men like '* boisterous barmaid " style, and at any rate there were plenty of youths who admired the Miss Howards, their ample fortunes, and their vigorous physique. 7—2 100 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. The vulgarity of their parents was a terrible trial to the Miss Howards. Though they themselves were not ladies, or any- thing approaching to gentlewomen, yet they did not drop their h's, or eat with their knives, or drink while their mouths were full, of all which things, and many more of the same sort, Mr. and Mrs. Howard could truthfully be accused. For the parent Howards had been too old, when fortune had smiled upon them, to care to educate themselves in the ways and manners of a class above them ; but the parent Brooms, on the other hand, had leapt into wealth and importance, while they were themselves young, and capable of picking up readily the social tricks of manner and conversation which help to japan a man with a layer of gentility, even when nothing on earth could ever make him a gentleman. CHAPTER XL A CHAPTER OF VULGARITIES. HEX the Broom chariot arrived at Arundel Lodge, it was found that Planty Broom had "reckoned with- out his host." Mrs. Broom had prepared a perfect sheaf of cards for bestowal upon the Howard family, when, to her annoyance and dismay, old Howard opened the front door himself, and she found herself let in for a long visit of ceremony to people whom she heartily wished at the bottom of the sea. 102 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Much as Mrs. Broom disliked the Howards, she was shrewd enough to see the necessity for keeping on good terms with them. Mrs. Broom had never been a truthful woman at any time, and since her rise in the world, she had studied social hypocrisy until she had become a finished mistress of the art of lying. " How glad I am to find you at home," she exclaimed with affected cordiality, as Mr. Howard came forward to assist her to alight. ^^ Such an age since we met I And how are Mrs. Howard and the dear girls r Mr. Howard was perfectly aware that Mrs. Broom would have tacitly consented to the poisoning of his whole family, him- self included, but he only "rubbed his hands with invisible soap in imperceptible water," as he had been accustomed to do to his A CHAPTER OF VULGARITIES. 103 customers in Holborn all his life long, and answered blandly enough : " Mrs. 'Oward is pretty well, ma'am, and so are the young ladies, and I 'ope I see you well, and Mr. Broom and all." Mr. Howard escorted Mrs. Broom into his ^' best parlour," as he still persisted in calling his drawing-room, while Planty Broom re- marked in an aside to his father : " What a cursed sell ! the old boy said they were all going to the Shalemouth flower-show." *' We are fortunate in finding you at home, Mrs. Howard," said Mrs. Broom as she deposited her portly person on one of the holland- covered chairs of the best parlour. " 'Appy to see you whenever you can make it convenient to call," replied Mrs. Howard, not unmindful, however, of the 104 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. three months which had elapsed since Mrs. Broom's last visit. " Will you not put your 'at down, Mr. Plantagenet ?" remarked Mr. Howard, who seemed to think that he had not done the honours of his house until every one's hat had a separate resting-place to itself. '' Ca- milla, take Mr. Plantao^enet's 'at." Camilla got very red at such service being suggested to her, but she stood in no fear of the Brooms, whose pretentiousness, she saw through and despised ; so she bounded across the room at Planty and his hat, remarking flippantly : " Best Lincohi and Bennett at twenty-six ! It shall have the yellow satin cushion all to itself, it shall !" and slie laid the hat gingerly down by Plantagenet's side. Planty Broom was not thin-skinned, any more than his father, and as a rule he v/as perfectly well able to hold his own ao^ainst A CHAPTER OF VULGAllITIES. 105 all comers, but he was desperately afraid of Camilla Howard, who knew every joint in his armour of self-conceit, and took advantage of her knowledge on every possible occasion. "That hat did not leave its bandbox to call upon us," continued Camilla, foUomng \ip her banter. " I suppose it has been paying a state visit at the Priory, and has looked in on us on its way home ?" " We have been to the Priory," answered Planty, sucking at the gold top of his malacca cane. " Find them ' at home V " asked Camilla briskly. " No ! they were out," answered Planty defiantly. " ' Out,' or ' not at home V " urged his tormentor. " Means much the same thing, I suppose," he jerked out sullenly. " Not at all ; out means out ; ' not at 106 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. home * means ^ don't mean to see you/ wrapped up in a polite form." Mrs. Broom thoug^lit it time to cut in. " Camilla, my dear," she said (Mrs. Broom always " my deared " the Howard girls ; it cost nothing, and sounded friendly), '^ excuse my being personal, but what a love of a jicliu that is you are wearing ! Pari- sian, I presume ? you girls always dress with such taste !" ** ' Feeshous ' is my abhorrence," said Mr. Howard, ^' they runs into money. Fancy that gimcrack costing two pun ten ! I 'ates the sight of it." " Worth is so expensive !" said Mrs. Broom in a tone of mild expostulation, '•'but then everything of his is so sure to be quite comme il faut I only wish we could afford to get our things there." Mrs. Broom being absolutely ignorant of any language but her own, (and of that A CHAPTER OF VULGAEITIES. lOT even but a doubtful interpreter,) and being- also enormously rich, always managed to in- troduce into her conversation scraps of French and an affectation of poverty. She thought both good style. " My girls 'as their own allowances," said Mr. Howard, " and if they chooses to spend 'em on such tomfooleries, why they must, that's all ; I only 'opes the time '11 never come when they wants the money for beans and bacon. Mr. Broom, 'ow's your green- houses gettin' on ? I 'ears you've built nigh upon a mile of glass up to Buncombe. Kuns into money, glass does, don't you find it so r "Well, Mr. Howard, it is an expensive taste certainly, but one must have hobbies, now that life is no longer filled by the cares of business. The culture of grapes is mine. It is innocent, even if expensive. Mrs. Howard must do me the honour to accept 108 . COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. a few bunches. They are coming on nicely now." " Much obHged I'm sure, Mr. Broom, and thank you kindly," said Mrs. Howard; " I was just a-saying to your good lady 'ow dreadful scarce the fruit was this year. Not a peach nor a hapricot will there be in our garden." '' There are some splendid strawberries though," suggested Penelope, who had been discussing altar-cloths, stoles, and vestments with Genista Broom in the corner of the best parlour, but who woke up to more earthly appetites when the good things of this life were mentioned. '' Let us adjourn to the strawberry-beds. Come along. Ge- nista." The two girls moved out through the little conservatory into the garden beyond. They were rather friends, these two, both being •devoted adherents of St. Mark's and its. A CHAPTER OF VULGARITIES. 109 curate, for which and for whom they worked every imaoinable device sanctioned by Ca- thohcism and the middle aofes. " Come, Mr. Plantagenet," said Camilla, who was rather tired of trying to entertain that young man by banter alone ; " I do not suppose you will care to muddle about the strawberry-beds in those immaculate boots of yours, but papa has bought me a new horse, and I want your opinion of him. I know you are a good judge. You see I do give you credit for what I think you deserve." A compliment from Camilla HoAvard was rare ; besides, it tickled Planty Broom's vanity, as it was intended to do. He ceased mumbling his gold-headed cane, caught up *' Lincoln and Bennett at twenty- six," and followed Camilla to the stables. '^ Your girls seem in splendid health and spirits, Mr. Howard," said Mr. Broom as soon as the young people had disappeared. 110 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. " Lord" bless you, there's never nothing the matter with them. They sleeps well, takes kindly to their victuals, and laughs from mornin' till night as gals should do." " Neither of them going to leave the nest yet I suppose, Mr. Howard ?" " Not they, they knows when they re well off. There's no call for my gals to leave 'ome till they feels downright spooney, and they don't seem sufferin' from that disorder just at present, to judge by the looks of 'em, eh ? Mrs. Broom." " Indeed they are looking uncommonly well and very handsome," answered Mrs. Broom, " but a little bird did whisper to me " (and here Mrs. Broom put on her sw^eetest smile) " that your second daughter was likely to make a certain young gentleman happy — am I right ?" " Penelope 'as 'ad 'er proposals, I admit," answered Mrs. Howard, looking very im- A CHAPTER OF VULGARITIES. Ill portant, *^ nor is it one nor t^yo young men as is desirous of keepin company with 'er ; but as yet there's nothin' serious, Mrs. Broom, I do assure you." " 'Ave you called at the Priory yet ?" asked Mr. Howard with startling abruptness. *'Yes, we called to-day, but the family were all out," answered Mrs. Broom. *' Have you called T " Have we called 1 Lor' bless you, no !" shouted old Howard, slapping his thighs with much noisy laughter ; '' it isn't for the hkes of us to call on the daughter of a dook ; we knows our place, do Sally and I." Mrs. Howard cast a warning glance at her spouse. He always did manage to put his foot in it in every interview with the Brooms ; he had done so now. Mrs. Broom looked black as thunder ; she rose with much ill- concealed disgust, and said it was time to be getting home. 112 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. "We 'ave friends comin' Toosday, Mrs. Broom," said Mrs. Howard by way of smoothing away the effects of her husband's remark ; "if you and Mr. Broom and your young peojDle will come and take a bit of dinner with us, we shall be very 'appy to see you." " Just a leg of mutton and a bottle of dry sherry," added Mr. Howard, who always prefaced his invitations to his most gorgeous " feeds " by some disparaging remark of this ^ kind. Asking people to "pot luck," and then giving them twelve courses and Avine at a guinea the bottle was a common affectation of Mr. Howard's. Nothing annoyed Mrs. Broom so much as being asked by word of mouth to a party of any sort ; except perhaps being asked to the Howards' house at all. For her husband would go, being fond of good living; and the Howards gave the best dinners for miles A CHAPTEK OF VULGARITIES. 113 round, but the company was, as might be expected, very mixed, and being seen at such people's table acted as a sort of check on the Brooms' advancement towards " county " position. Mrs. Broom demurred ; was not quite sure if they had not an engagement at Shaleford on Tuesday ; but Mr. Broom vowed he should put it off if they had, and they might all be expected on Tuesday. Then Plantagenet and Genista were shouted for, and the Brooms rolled home again in the yellow •chariot. VOL. I. CHAPTEE XII. MISS PRISCILLA UNLOCKS THE OLD BUREAU. ^ISS PEISCILLA understood com- fort. The Manor House, where Miss Priscilla Hved, was one of the most thoroughly comfortable habitations to be met with in the whole county. In the summer Miss Priscilla occupied as her private sitting-room, a large apartment on the ground-floor, looking north-east. This apartment was cool and lofty and spacious, and looked out upon a lawn which was the pride of Beer's heart for greenness and neatness. THE OLD BUREAl'. 115 One morning, a few days after the Trevors had returned their cousin's visit, Miss Priscilla sat in this summer boudoir of hers alone ; that is, unaccompanied by human beings. Bruno, the retriever, lay at her feet, and the tortoise- shell cat was purring on her lap. Miss Priscilla was in meditative mood, a mood the cat appreciated and enjoyed, for he found Miss Priscilla's lap preferable to a hearthruo' un warmed bv fire, or a window-sill that faced north-east. But the dog objected to meditation on Miss Priscilla's part, at any rate at this early hour. It was the time when his mistress was wont to oo her villaofe rounds among the sick and j^oor, with Bruno for her companion, while the cat was left at home ; but to-day Miss Priscilla sat on with the cat on her lap, and the dog vras feeling that his claims to attention were nes^lected. '^ It would not be the first time that a Trevor lost her heart to a Boss," Miss 8 9 116 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Priscilla was saying to herself, in a tone that would have been audible to any one who might have chanced to be in the room. Bruno considered that the remark was addressed to him, and took it as a sign that Miss Priscilla was returning to her senses. He barked and wagged his tail, but the cat was not displaced, so after a moment's hesita- tion Bruno lay down again. '*But it would be the first time that a Ross lost his heart to a Trevor," continued Miss Priscilla in the same low tone. These self-communings may have been intelligible to the cat, into whose ears Miss Priscilla had doubtless often poured the tale of her own spinsterhood, but to the reader her words may be devoid of meaning, until explained. Barker knew, but then Barker was Miss Priscilla's alter ego. Barker knew most things about Miss Priscilla's past, for Bai'ker THE OLD BUREAU. 117 had been Miss Priscilla's maid ever since the schoolroom had been abandoned, and the squire's daughter had made her cUhut in poHte society. But Barker was a discreet person, very discreet ; Miss Priscilla felt it to be her duty to let Barker participate in her own knowledge ; but Barker exercised her own discretion as to what it was o-ood for Miss o Priscilla to know, and when she should be kept in ignorance. Miss Priscilla was old, but Barker was older still ; Miss Priscilla was impetuous and impulsive, heart first, head afterwards, in all she did ; but Barker was practical and not given to sentiment, and had the reputation of being a little stern. Those who had known Miss Priscilla longest, had averred that, as a young woman, she had wanted '' ballast." If so, she had certainly found what she wanted in Barker. Miss Priscilla might have grown up a com- 1 1 8 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. monplace woman, had it not been for the one episode in her Hfe to which she now made alhision in the sohtude of her own room. In the old days, when she and Eva Ijeslie had been girls together, they had both loved the same man — Tom Koss, the carpenter's son — and he had loved one of them, and that one had not been Miss Priscilla. Had Miss Priscilla been made of a coarser clay, jealousy and consequent hatred of her rival might well have been the result of her disappointment, but her whole nature was too sweet, too true, too generous for such a course. Even had Eva Leslie not married handsome Tom Koss, Miss Priscilla doubted whether she herself would ever have stood any chance, while she felt sure that her parents — who had been among the proudest people in the county — would never liave given their con- sent to such a marriage for their daughter, as Eva's parents had at last been induced to do. THE OLD BUKEAU. 119 Miss Priscilla's one love and one disap- pointment had filled and made her life, instead of marring it. It had made her very tender and gentle, and thoughtful of others, and it had made her settle down early to the placid and fairly contented Hfe she had ever since led at Olton Priors. She had loved Tom Ross with all her heart and soul ; there was no denying that. It might have been undignified, un- nmidenly, almost improper, so to have loved a man who had not wooed her, or even shown her any special attention ; but the fact stood for all that. She had loved him ; and his image, as she first saw him when she had been a girl in her teens, would be her ideal and her idol to her dying day. As she sat there in the early freshness of a June morning, with her cat on her lap and her dog at her feet, the image of a fair stal- 120 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. wart young giant, with keen blue eyes and yellow hair, rose up before her in the shadowy past— a young fellow bright and strong and brave, who had rescued her favourite dog from a huge mastiff in the Shaleford lanes, and had thrashed the mastiff's owner for a piece of wanton impertinence to herself. Miss Priscilla put the cat gently on the floor. She crossed the room with a slow step and a deep-drawn sigh ; she unlocked an old-fashioned bureau that stood in its corner between the fireplace and the door, and she took out a little drawer, in which were a few dry leaves and twigs of what once had been a bouquet of myrtle sprays — sprays that Tom Ross had cut for her some five-and-thirty years ago, in the days when they both were young. The leaves had all curled up, and had shrivelled into shapes that bore no likeness to the myrtle leaf, and the very stems were chips, so brittle, that they THE OLD BUREAU. 121 broke almost with the faintest touch ; but the memory of the day when those flowers had been culled for her was green yet in Miss Priscilla's heart, and would be green until that heart should cease to beat. Miss Priscilla's meditations were hiter- rupted by a smart knock at the door. She returned the drawer to its place, and shut the bureau with a sharp click ; but Barker's eyes had taken in the situation at a glance, and Miss Priscilla felt a guilty flush stealing up to her brow, as she met Barker's interro- gating gaze. " The butcher's boy has called for orders^ miss," said Barker, ''and as I thought you would be having a party of some sort soon, to introduce your friends to the ladies at the Priory, I told him to wait till I knew which day you had fixed upon." " A party, Barker ! Why I never thought of having a party, and at this time of year, <9 122 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. too ! What could have put such a notion into your head ?" Barker had come close up to her mistress, and stood grimly contemplating her from head to foot, with much real love in her heart, but with a touch almost of contempt upon her lips for the Aveakness of possessing a heart which Barker thought should have given up sentiment long ago. '' This has put it into my head. Miss Pris- cilla," said Barker sharply, bringing down her open palm on the old bureau. '^ To-day is not the first time you have been messing about again with the things in them old drawers. You have been at it ever since you drove Miss Diana to Black Bock, and we shall have you in one of your low fits again, as sure as my name's Barker. You want company, Miss Priscilla ; company you must have. Miss Priscilla, you must give a garden-party.' CHAPTER XIII. BARKER DECIDES ON WHAT IS BEST FOR MISS PRISCILLA. il^HEX Barker had made up her mind to any given course of action, Miss Priscilla had nothing to do but to submit, with a good grace if she could, with Bj bad grace if she could not. And Barker had made up her mind that Miss Priscilla should give a garden-party. But Barker, though she tyrannized over Miss Priscilla, did so from the best inten- tions. She felt that the old chord had been 124 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. somehow struck unaAvares in her mistress's heart. The result of such striking was always a jar, and Barker knew by experience that some other strong interest must at once be found to take Miss Priscilla's mind off herself and the days of long ago. Barker had hailed the advent of the new arrivals at the Priory as quite a godsend, and she determined to use them to her own pur- poses, namely, to the forcing of her mistress more into general society, and giving her something else to think of besides the sorrows of the poor and the loneliness of her own existence. Obviously it was Miss Priscilla's place to introduce her cousins to the neighbourhood, and the neighbourhood to her cousins. As far as a maiden lady could, Miss Priscilla occupied a most influential place in county society, and she was — from living in Olton Priors itself, and yet belonging to the chief BARKER DECIDES FOR MISS PRISCILLA. 125 family in the neighbourhood — a connecting link between little people and big people, a position which has its own importance. So the tortoise-shell cat went off on his wanderings to find some sunny spot for a siesta, and Bruno curled liimself up by the window, with one eye on Miss Priscilla, as she sat writing notes of invitation, very much at Barker's command, for Barker had a mind to put a stop to these visits to the old bureau, and had brought her ^^'ork into the morning- room, to see that " them dead sticks," as she mentally denominated the faded myrtles, did no more mischief for the present. Miss Priscilla loved giving parties, as Barker very well knew, and a garden-party was a new idea to her. Her brow cleared and her manner grew brisk again, as Barker plied her needle in the window, and made suggestions regarding some invitation that had been forgotten. 126 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. The party was to be made for the Trevors, that was understood, but it was difficult to judge how far Lady Adela's remark ^'that she and Mr. Trevor wished to be on friendly terms with all their neighbours," was to be taken ai'. 2^ied cle la lettre. Lord and Lady Margate and Captain Norman headed Miss Priscilla's list. The Rosses of course ; Miss Priscilla would as soon have thought of leaving out the Rosses, as of giving the donkeys and the tortoise-shell tom to the vivisectors. And the Golightlys, father, mother, and three girls ; and the Curate, the Rev. Celestine Channing. Of course too Dr. Grain and his wife must be asked, and if Dr. Grain, then Mr. Bone, the dapper young surgeon who had lately es- tablished himself in Olton Priors. Then there was Mr. Broughton, the family " man of business," and his wife, and her sister Miss Spink. Here Miss Priscilla came to BAKKER DECIDES FOR MISS PRISCILLA. 127 a full stop. The rest required considera- tion. Be it understood that Barker was a privileged person. She always spoke her mind freely, and did not stand upon the order of her speaking, but spoke at once. Besides, Barker heard all that side of each question which the village knew, and Miss Priscilla did not know, except through Barker's filtered edition ; and Barker did not think it good for Miss Priscilla to hear village scandals at first hand. In conversation with Miss Priscilla, Barker was not in the habit of wasting her breath on giving people their legitimate titles. If she liked the family in question, she allowed them the honour of the definite article ; if she objected to the family, she prefixed only an ungrammatical demonstrative '' them." Now . Barker, like most old servants of distinguished families, was more aristocratic 128 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. in her proclivities, by far, than was her mistress. '' I suppose you must ask * them ' Howards," said Barker ; '' you've promised to dine there on Tuesday." *' They are my chief difficulty," was the reply, ^^ at least they and the Brooms. You know, Barker, it has been my habit to ask everybody I know to my parties, and let them sort themselves when they get here ; but Lady Adela is evidently a very proud woman in some respects, and as I am giv- ing this garden-party on her account, I should not like to introduce people to her, whom she might not choose to know after- wards." " You go your own ways. Miss Priscilla, just the same as you have always done. If Lady Adela don't like them Howards, she needn't ask them to come and see her ; and I'm as certain as that I'm sitting here, that BARKER DECIDES FOR MISS PRISCILLA. 129 them Howards will not call at the Priory of their owti accord." '' How do you know that, Barker ?" " Starkey, that's them Howards' man, heard his master say so himself. Starkey told Beer, and Beer told me, that's how I know. Miss Priscilla. Them Howards is vulgar baggage, but they are not pushing like them Brooms." " Of course if I ask the Howards, I cannot leave out the Brooms ; yet I feel sure Lady Adela will never tolerate the Brooms." " Well, I guess she'll have to," said Barker emphatically ; " them Brooms would wriggle themselves into a rabbit-hole, if they thought the rabbit had ever been to Court 1" Miss Priscilla laughed. '' I know you do not like the Brooms, Barker," she said, '' but I should be sorry to give offence to them. There ! I have VOL. I. 9 130 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. written notes to the Brooms and the Howards. Is there anybody else '?" What Barker's reply might have been will never be known, for at that moment she was summoned by Beer to the performance of various " manorial " duties, and Miss Pris- cilla was left to write the rest of her invita- tions to whom she pleased. Then Miss Priscilla sent Beer round with her notes, and answers came in due course. Everybody accepted. Everybody always did accept invitations to the Manor House^ for Miss Priscilla was vastly popular with young people as with old. CHAPTER XIY. THE duke's daughter BUILDS A CASTLE IX THE AIR. N the Tuesday on which Mr.' Howard had asked the Brooms and others to ^^ a leo' of mutton and a bottle of dry sherry," Lady Adela Trevor, accompanied by Mr. Trevor and Diana, drove to Cod- desley and Buncombe, and returned their neighbours' calls. Coddesley was a picturesque estate, lyings mostly among the Shalemoor Hills, but the house was built on a plateau high enough to 9—2 132 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. command a view of the river Shale for the last five miles of its course between Olton Priors and Shalemouth. Hilly as the country was above Olton Priors, the banks of the stream, after it became navigable, ceased to be precipitous, and shelved gradually back to a forest of pines on one side, which was known by the name of Shalebourne Wood, and on the other to the newly-stocked plantations of the Bun- combe estate, and a few miles of waste land, covered with gorse and heather, generally called Mambury Common. On each side of the Shale a good high road ran from Shalemouth to Olton Priors, one on the east bank at the foot of Mambury Common and Buncombe, the other on the west skirting Shalebourne Wood. These two roads eventually met at the market- cross of Olton Priors, from which two other roads ran, one towards the Priory and Black A CASTLE IX THE AIR. 133 Eock, both of which places were in the midst of the Shalemoor Hills, and the other to Coddesley, which Avas situated high above the first bend of the river, and which com- manded a magnificent view of both land and water. Lady Adela w^as enchanted with the varied scenery through which they drove on their way to Coddesley, and she continually stopped the carriage to enjoy glimpses in the pine wood, through v%'hich the lovely river could be seen making its way to the sea. Coddesley itself was a massive stone-built house, white in colour, rather new in appear- ance, but built after an old pattern, and in form something between a castle and an old country house, like the stately homes of Stuart times. Its four corners were round castellated towers on a massive scale, in which were slits for windows, that reminded people 134 COUXTY VERSUS COUNTER. rather of a Norman "keep" than of a modern country residence ; but at the back of tha house, where the principal entrance was, an old arch admitted visitors into a huge central courtyard, round which ran a covered pas- sage, some ten feet wide, betAveen the court- yard and the inner walls of the house itself Coddesley was evidently an old country house of Stuart times, refaced with the stone of the neighbouring quarries, and castellated to suit the taste of the renovator, and to give it a martial appearance as seen from the river Shale. Speaking from a critical point of view, Coddesley was not in good taste as far as its architectural design was concerned, but nevertheless it was an imposing mansion, as seen from the river, and a comfortable and picturesque old house as viewed from the other side. The view too Avas magnificent. No A CASTLE IN THE AIR. 135 grander site could have been chosen for a house than that on which Coddesley stood. Its front looked south-east, right down the broadest ^^art of the river to the sea, which was distant just five miles. To the right, where the river made a sudden bend, just beneath the crag upon which Coddesley stood, lay the town of Olton Priors. A verge of trees skirted the park, and shut out from view the timber wharves and yards by the river-side just outside the town. These wharves belonged to the Rosses, and here Tom Ross or his son did business every day. To the left, the inmates of Cod- desley looked down upon Shaleford, a hamlet by the river's bank which boasted a village church of its own, however, and a paper manufactorv on rather a laro^e scale. This last, however, did not interfere with the view from the windows of Coddesley, though its presence there at all was a cause of unceasing 136 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. annoyance to Lord Margate, and of unpleas- antness between him and the owner of the paper mills. Beyond Shaleford, on the left bank of the Shale, was Buncombe, the residence of the Brooms, and beyond that again, Mambury Common, which continued up to the outlying villas of Shalemouth, a watering-place of some pretensions but small merit, chiefly affected by people who found other localities too '^ hot" for them. A glimpse of the sea was visible from the Coddesley windows, just where the Shale fell into it ; while along the right bank of the river the pine-trees of Shalebourne Wood formed a sombre dark- green ridge all the way from the seaboard to Black Bock. Beyond Black Bock the country became wilder and wilder, till vege- tation almost ceased, only a few stunted shrubs and whortleberry bushes clothing the barren sides of the granite hills, which A CASTLE IN THE AIR. 137 stretched from Olton Priors far into the interior of the country. Between Black Bock and Olton Priors lay the Priory, doA\Ti in the valley by the bank of the Shale. So low did it lie that only the smoke from its chimneys could be seen from Coddesley. The old arch, covered with ivy and Virginia creeper, occupied the north end of the huge courtyard of Coddesley, while beyond again through its centre light, the granite rocks of Shalemoor rose higher and higher, dark, and grim, and bare. ^' It is a princely place." said Lady Adela, as they drove into the courtyard through the half-ruined arch. '' I had no idea the Margate family possessed such a family seat." "The Normans are a very old family indeed," answered Mr. Trevor ; " at one time their possessions in this county were enormous. 138 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. The title is of comparatively recent date, bestowed, if I remember right, for services rendered to the Royalists at the time Crom- well was besieging Inchester. This county was joarticularly loyal to the Stuarts, and the Norman of that day made heavy sacrifices for the Koyalist cause." '' I hope the Trevors did the same," said Diana, who looked upon Cromwell and Robespierre as belonging to much the same class of criminals. " The Trevors lost more than the Normans even, and it was not made up to them in the next reign, as it was to Lord Margate's family. It was reserved to your mother to bestow that act of grace." The daughter of the Duke of Wessex, in whom the blood of the Royal Stuarts ran, patted her husband's cheek as a reward for his graceful compliment. " You have not forgotten how to make A CASTLE IX THE AIR. 139 pretty speeches, my Philip, in our old age." " Old age, indeed !" Mr. Trevor exclaimed, laughing ; '' but here is Lady ^Margate ! My wife was making uncomphmentary allusions to my weight of years, Lady Margate, just after I had paid her a handsome compliment. I hope that is not the way you treat your husband." '^ Neither the weio-ht nor the allusion to it seem to have affected your looks or your spirits, Mr. Trevor." "Bravo, Mao-oie !" exclaimed Lord Mar- gate, who had entered the room immediately after his wife ; '' since when have you been practising the art of repartee T Then the conversation became general, and Captain Norman came in, looking veiy hand- some and very distinguished, and dressed in a style that combined military smartness with fashionable simplicity. Lady Adela 140 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. ran her eye over hira, and decided he would do ; Mr. Trevor received him with a frank cordiahty which spoke volumes, and even Diana was disposed to bestow on him an appreciative glance, for there certainly was an air about him that birth and breeding alone could give. Lady Adeia was not a manoeuvring woman ; besides, she had married for love herself, and was sincerely anxious that Diana should do the same ; still she was a woman who knew a good deal of the world, without being exactly worldly, and she thought it just as well that such young men as were thrown in Diana's way on her first entrance into society should be such as would make desirable husbands, should any of them happen to become attached to her daughter. That she herself and the other Fitz-Henry girls had chosen men whom they really loved was true, but it Avas A CASTLE IN THE AIR. 141 •equally true that the duchess had kept out of their way all those young men with whom a marriage would have been a mesalliance. That Diana might have a season or two in town was possible, and at any rate desirable ; but Mr. Trevor was only well oiF, compared w^th what he had been before his cousin's death, and was still to all intents and purposes a poor man, to whom seasons in town would entail much self-denial at home. The present duke, Lady Adela's brother, had a large family of his own, and had married moreover a banker's daughter, a fast, frivolous, fashion- able fool, with whom Lady Adela was not on intimate or even friendly terms. There- fore it was more than probable that Diana would have to choose and be chosen from among the limited circle of the neighbouring county society, and it was imperative (so Lady Adela thought) that the girl's first 142 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. impressions of eligible young men should be taken from those who moved in her own sphere. Now of these there was a melancholy dearth, as others besides Miss Priscilla had warned her, and even of such as Diana might meet at the Inchester County Balls, there were very few who were not in some shape or form objectionable. Lady Adela wished her future son-in-law to be well-born, well-bred, well-looking ; thus pride and position would be satisfied and the dangers incidental to a marriage with an ugly or repulsive man obviated ; beyond this, Lady Adela hoped Diana would never suffer from inadequate means, as she and Mr. Trevor had suffered during years which should have been the brightest and gayest of their lives. And again she wished her daughter to marry a man capable of managing her, for Diana had wild ways of her own, and took odd whims into her head sometimes which might A CASTLE IN THE AIR. 143 lead her into much trouble unless the man she married could o-uide her with both a firm and gentle hand. Lady Adela had rapidly summed up in her mind the combination of advantao-es offered by a marriage with Captain Norman, and she found that they came to a very goodly figure. Therefore, provided that he fell in love with Diana and Diana with him, Lady Adela decided that Captain Norman would do, and in her mind's eye she already read in the Court Journal and the Morning Post that "a marriage had been arranged, etc., etc.," when her husband's unmistakable sims of a desire to depart reminded her that it was some distance to Buncombe, and that their visit to Coddesley had already ex- ceeded the fashionable limits of a morning call. Lady Adela parted with Lady Margate with some empressement ; Mr. Trevor had 144 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. asked Captain Norman to come over and play pyramids next day; and altogether it seemed likely that the two families would before long be on intimate terms. CHAPTER XV. COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. APTAIN NORMAN is certainly very handsome," said Lady Adela, as the carriage rolled away from Coddesley. " His features are so clearly cut and so refined, and those great brown eyes of his have so much expression." " He is a fine fellow, certainly," assented her husband, *^ though I think his advan- tages of figure are greater than his actual good looks. He is well built and well proportioned, and has a very soldierly bear- VOL. I. 10 146 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. ing. How did you get on with him^ Diana 1" " I don't think Captain Norman is much in my line," answered Diana, who was in one of her provoking moods. ^' I admit he is handsome, in a cold, conventional style, and his tailor seems to understand the small of Ills back ; but his smartness is almost foppish, and he knows his good looks too well him- self to make one wish to encourage his opinion thereof" '' Ah ! you think so !" said her father dryly. '' Well, I should have said he was about the least conceited young fellow I have come across for many a day. But men always judge men by such a different stan- dard to what women do." ^' I did not say I thought him conceited," retorted Diana. ''To be conceited, a man must pride himself on qualities he does not possess, as it seems to me ; but what I dis- COUNTY VERSUS COUNTEK. 147 like in Captain Norman is the smart sort of way in which he rates himself at his real value, and seems to pride himself upon it." * '' And why not ?" asked Lady Adela. " I like a man to be fully alive to his advan- tages, whether they be of person, or position, or intellect. If a man appraises his own merits justly, he is all the more likely to be able to appreciate those of other people." But Diana stuck to her opinions. She was a wayward little girl, and she took strong likes and dislikes to people at first siofht as a general rule. Moreover, Diana never spoke or acted as she would have been supposed likely to speak or act, and she was always in opposition. There are always two sides to every question, Diana would wait to see which side was in the minority, and then deliberately throw in her lot with it, be it what it might. This spirit of unreasonable opposition, 10—2 148 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. SO unusual in a girl of Diana's age, gave Lady Adela much uneasiness. Mr. Trevor laughed at his daughter, called her a *' tiresome little termagant," " a contradic- tious young monkey," and liked her all the better for her wilfulness ; but Lady Adela saw deeper into Diana's character than did her husband, and she feared lest this spirit of rebellion against received opinions and time-honoured conventionalities should lead Diana hereafter into eccen- tricities of behaviour that society would not countenance. Lady Adela had praised Captain Norman in an unguarded moment, not remembering how surely Diana would take the other side. She had praised him because she really did think that if his character was anything like his appearance, he must certainly be a man in a thousand. A handsome man is always pleasing to a woman's eye. Captain Nor- COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. 149 man was very handsome, and Lady Adela was honestly pleased with his good looks. Among Diana's many peculiarities, was an aversion to anything seemingly per- fect. This was partly owing to the girl's keen sympathy with failure rather than with success, and partly because she looked on such seeming perfection as being but veneer, which hid beneath its superficial gloss cracks and flaws, which in the rough wood would have been at once discernible. Diana was an aristocrat to the core, but she hated hum- bug none the less for that. Affectation of any sort was positively hateful to her. She was accustomed to speak as she felt, and to feel as she spoke, and she liked other people to do the same. This habit of hers made her many enemies ; and even those who were friends of long standing found it a trying test of friendship when Diana insisted on stripjDing off all the 150 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. conventional bandages with Avhich social abominations were bound, and exposing them to the hght of truth and common sense. Now Diana did not consider Captain Nor- man a humbug. The whole air and manner of the man gave the lie to that. But she did think that the polish was too perfect for the man to be quite real. So much gloss must surely have been the result of the necessity for concealing some great flaw. Diana had not happened to ihink of the other side of the question — namely, that it is only the best wood that wdll take the highest polish ; and even if she had, she would have felt constrained to side against a man who apparently had every personal and social ad- vantage that the world and human nature had to offer. Although Diana was a high- principled girl, Avith many sterling qualities, she was not simple-minded. Life in Florence had COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. 151 tended to develop her in all ways much, more quickly than would have been the case had she been educated in England ; and, ac- cording to Italian custom, subjects had been freely discussed in her presence that would have been studiously kept from an English girl of her own age. Though in person Jshe looked so childish, in mind she was very forward, and held dis tinct opinions on many matters about which young ladies are not supposed to be able to judge. She was the constant companion of both her parents ; and while she shared her mother's aristocratic prejudices, she had a strong leaning to the fashionable Bohe- mianism of the set in which her father had been a bright particular star in his young days. The horses toiled up a long tedious ascent from the banks of the Shale to Buncombe, between newly-planted plantations of larch 152 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. and fir. Buncombe had once been part of Mambury Common. Everything looked new, and prim, and artificial — a marked con- trast to Coddesley. Buncombe was osten- tatiously fresh; Coddesley considerably out of repair, like the fortunes and health of its owner. Yet the latter bore the unmistak- able marks of aristocracy; the former was the gorgeous conceit of a vulgar parveim. "Yes, Mrs. Broom was at home;" at least, so the gorgeous flunkey in canary plush had said. But the immense drawing-room was empty when the Trevors entered it. They had plenty of time to look about them, for Mrs. Broom had escaped through a side-door on hearing carriage-wheels, and had reconnoitred her visitors from a stair- case window, after the manner of a badly- trained maid of all-work down a London area. Then, when she had seen who it was, she had summoned Parkins, her maid, and COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. 153 had chanofed her dress and had her hah done afresh ; and altogether had kept the Trevors waiting quite a quarter of an hour before she felt in feather to receive a duke's daug-hter. Mr. Trevor had been bored by waiting, and had risen to iind out if there had not been some mistake. His hand was on the bell, when Mrs. Broom sailed in. She at once saw that some apology was necessary ; but of course she could not plead guilty to not having been dressed decently at four m the afternoon, so she lied. Mrs. Broom generally did lie in her conversations with her neighbours, sometimes directly, some- times by implication ; truth was a matter of absolutely no importance to Mrs. Broom. *^ I regret extremely not having been told sooner that you were here," she began. ^^ The footman has been half over the grounds for me ; my conservatories are such 154 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. a resource to me in these wilds. So kind of you to come all this way ! How do you like Sandshire V " We have not seen much of it as yet," replied Lady Adela. '' We have only been a fortnight at the Priory, and there has been a good deal to see to about the house. My daughter has had a few rides with her father, and her account of the scenery is enthu- siastic." Genista, who had been in the shrubberies, here came in, and was shortly followed by Mr. Broom. *' Glad to see you, sir'; hope I see you well, my lady ; fine day for a drive, miss," said Mr. Broom, flopping ponderously about the room, and making remarks to each, under the impression that he was drawing the com- pany together. ^' A glass of wine, your lady- ship ? Genista, touch the bell, her ladyship will take a glass of wine. No ! Then Mr. COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. 155 Trevor would like a brandy and soda — a first-class drink, sir, first-class, specially in this broilinof weather," and Mr. Broom whipped out a yellow bandana handkerchief from his breast-pocket, and mopped his ruddy face with much energy. But Lady Adela declined any refreshment, as did her husband and Diana, much to the astonishment of Mr. Broom, who looked upon standing a drink all round as the correct form of hospitality in a morning call. " Where is Plantagenet V said Mr. Broom to his wife, when he had mopped himself comparatively dry. '^ Plantagenet is my son, my lady," he added, turning to Lady Adela, " family name with us, even though for some generations we have been under a passing cloud ; but blood tells in the long-run, eh I my lady ? tells in the long-run ; and I hope in my son the family honours will be restored." 156 COUNTY VEKSUS COUNTEH. What Mr. Broom might mean by the family honours did not appear. His father had been bottle-washer in a low pot-house in Birmingham, and the passing cloud under which his grandfather had languished, had been that which had thrown its shadow over Botany Bay. But at this moment the yelling of a dog — apparently in both torture and restraint, for the sounds came from the same spot for several minutes in succession — created an alarming diversion. Diana, who was devoted to all animals, and to dogs in particular, bounced up from her chair, regardless of proprieties, and rushed to the window to find out the cause of the continued howl. She had not far to look. On the terrace just below the house a fair young man, dressed like a smart groom, and apparently almost beside himself with passion, was mercilessly thrashing a young spaniel — scarcely more COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. 157 than a puppy — which he was holding by the collar with one hand, while he lashed it with the riding-whip he held in the other. The drawing-room window was raised some few feet above the terrace. A set of mov- able steps generally alloAved easy access to the terrace from the room, but for some reason this had been removed. Diana, with her face white and her teeth set, bounded on to the terrace, and quivering all over with rage, wrenched the whip out of the man's hand, and sent it whirling down among the shrubs. ^' You cowardly brute I" she said ; '^ you deserve to be thrashed yourself" And then she threw herself down by the yelping puppy, which was wriggling and crawling in abject fear at her feet, w^hile tears of rage sprang to her eyes, and dropped on to the spaniel's glossy coat. Mr. Plantagenet Broom — for it was he — 158 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. looked up amazed and furious at this un- looked for interference. That a girl — a perfect stranger to him — should drop as it were from the clouds, and dare to interfere between him and his disobedient dog, was so astounding and so maddening, that for a moment he was speechless from passion. Planty Broom's command of expletives was choice and varied, and Diana would probably have been speedily treated to the young man's choicest and worst, had not Genista Broom — who had clambered down after Diana, and, as usual, torn her dress to rao^s from awkwardness in the descent — sud- denly caught his arm and arrested his atten- tion at the same time. . '' It is Miss Trevor, Planty," she whispered. '' For Heavon's sake control yourself Lady Adela and Mr. TrQVor are in the drawing- room." Plantaofenet's countenance fell. His mood COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. 159 changed from furious to sullen. He had intended making a conquest of this young lady, and had built many fairy castles in the air respecting her. And now, there she was fondling that cursed dog that had been the cause of it all, and taking no further notice of the heir of Buncombe, than that she had called him a cowardly brute to his face, and said that he deserved to be thrashed him- self. '^ Say something to her, Planty," whispered Genista pleadingly. " Explain somehow ; make some sort of apology." '* Make an apology for thrashing my o^vn dog ! I'll be damned if I do 1" said Planty, loud enough for Diana to hear. '^ You'd best let your friends understand that Bun- combe does not belong to them, but to us.'' And jamming his hat on his head, he turned furiously on his heel and vanished among the shrubberies. 160 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Though his words had not reached the drawing-room, yet the scene had required no explanation. His parents and Diana's had witnessed the whole affair. " If that man were our groom, he should be discharged on the spot," said Diana, raising her angry and tear-stained face from the spaniel's neck, where it had lain some seconds in flushed indignation and pity. " My brother has great trouble in break- ing in his young dogs, Miss Trevor, and he is sometimes hot-tempered," said Genista humbly. "You must not think Planty is generally unkind to animals, indeed you must not, and I am very sorry he should have said anything rude. I hope you will let it pass ; my brother was very much put out." Diana rose to her feet and stared at Genista. " Your brother did you say, Miss Broom ? Was that — young man your brother ?" COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. IGI Genista assented. Poor Genista ! She knew how greatly her parents had counted on the Trevors as means whereby to climb some rungs of the social ladder. And now here were Plantagenet and this little virago at daggers drawn even before they had been introduced. Diana felt small. However much a young lady may feel for dogs, she may not have a personal encounter with a dog's master, especially in his own garden^ on her first visit of ceremony to his house. She met her mother's eye as she walked rather crest- fallen back to the window. Lady Adela was very much annoyed ; Diana saw that at a glance. Lady Adela would never have allowed her feelings to get the better of her good manners. She might have interfered, but it would have been in a becoming way. Diana had lost her temper and her head, and had behaved in VOL. I. 11 162 COUNTVr VERSUS COUNTER. an unladylike manner, even though in a righteous cause. Lady Adela was very much displeased. But Lady Adela's displeasure was nothing compared to Mrs. Broom's. That this shrimp of a girl — Trevor or no Trevor — should dare to snatch her son's whip out of his hand and throw it into the shrubbery, and that she should moreover call her darling boy a '' cowardly brute '* before them all, was more than Mrs. Broom could stand. County society might go to — heaven, but no son of hers should be insulted on his own grounds, while his mother stood by silent. '^ You seem to have forgotten yourself, Miss Trevor 1" she said, .quite purple with rage. " My son is not accustomed to such off-hand interference." Then she turned and glared at Lady Adela, but Lady Adela only drew herself up haughtily, and made no attempt to pro- COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. 163 ceed with the apology which at first she had meant to offer. It was very awkward. Planty Broom might be a brute, but Diana was clearly in the wrong. Mr. Trevor did not feel called upon to scold his daughter after what Mrs. Broom had said, but from him at least some sort of explanation was expected. ** My daughter did not know that it w^s your son," he said. '* Her extreme devotion to animals must be her excuse. PeiTuit me to apologise on my little girl's behalf, Mrs. Broom." Mr. Trevor was very distinguished-looking, and his manner was courtly to a degree. Mrs. Broom condescended to be mollified. Mr. Broom was flustered and put out, but he managed to blurt out that he hoped nothing more might be said on the subject, and that he was sure that on further ac- quaintance Miss Trevor would find out for 11—2 164 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. lierself that Plantagenet was as fond of animals as she herself could be. Then Lady Adela had bowed herself out, followed by Diana, and Mrs. Broom had made a stately and elaborate curtsey, meant to convey a sense of injured dignity tempered by Christian forbeara,nce, and Mr. Broom had shaken hands all round more than once in token that he at least was determined to think no more of the matter. But a good deal more Av^as thought of the- matter, and a good deal more came of it in the history of the Brooms and the Trevors^, the counter and the county. As soon as the Trevors' carriage was well on its road home, Diana gave way, and had a quiet cry all to herself in the back seat,, where she had, on this occasion, preferred to place herself She felt very much ashamed of herself,, and she detested Planty Broom all the morc^ COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. 165 for being the cause of her loss of self-esteem. It had not occurred to her certainly, in the ^nger of the moment, that the horsily- dressed young man must of course be the son of the house, but she felt, now that the excitement was over, that had the man been really a groom, she would not have been one whit the more justified in taking the violent -course she had pursued. Lady Adela was very much annoyed, but she did not say anything to Diana. Mrs. Broom's remarks had rendered that un- necessary. Lady Adela Avas not any better pleased that Mrs. Broom should have taken upon herself to rebuke Diana, than was Mrs. Broom that Diana should have insulted Plantagenet. Lady Adela's repose of manner became so intense during the drive, that Diana was quite aware how much her mother was annoyed. Lady Adela's displeasure always showed 166 COUNTY VEB.SUS COUNTER. itself in this way. She never scolded. She very seldom spoke strongly or made use of strong expressions. But when she wrapped herself up in a mantle of unnatural calmness, it was understood by her family that her disapprobation had reached a height in which all argument was useless, and silence was the only alternative. Mr. Trevor had his own views as to what line to pursue; but he knew by experience that his wife's present mood was not suitable to his purpose. So, like a wise man, he for the present held his peace. CHAPTEE XYT. THE RESULT OF THE DRIVE TO BUNCOMBE. ILENCE would probably have been maintained until reaching home, had it not been for a circumstance which was destined to be fraught with grave consequences to several persons in this history. It has been said that the camage-road from the bank of the river to Buncombe was by a tedious and rather steep ascent. The spot where the road to Buncombe branchbd off from the main highway was just where 1G8 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Tom Boss and his son Victor had built their new timber-yard, the old yard lying to its rear, higher up the stream at the point whence another road branched off to Cod- desley. In this new timber-yard Victor Koss and his father were both busy in superintending the unlading of a cargo of timber, which had been shipped in Canada and brought into Shalemouth harbour some time previously. Both father and son were in their shirt- sleeves, for the day was very hot, and the Bosses were people who did not expect their men to do any sort of work, they were not pre- pared to share with them, however rough it might be. They were anxious to get the new cargo safely stored at once, and Victor Boss, hot and dusty, was in the act of helping to hoist part of it from the barge on to the wharf, when his attention was arrested by seeing a carriage coming tearing down the THE EESULT OF THE DRIVE. 169 hill from Buncombe at a pace that suggested more than a probability that the coachman had lost all control over his horses. The new timber-yard was as yet unen- ■closed, and at the pace the horses were -coming, it seemed likely that they would rush right across the wharf, and either dash the carriage to pieces against the timber which was lying about, or if they escaped ihat dano'er, drao- the carriao^e and its occu- pants over the edge of the yard into the river below. A gentleman was standing up in the carriage, which was an open barouche, but no one else was visible save the coachman, who was e\ddently powerless to hold in the frightened animals, which were now tearing •down the slope at a terrific pace, so terrific that to turn them at the wharf would be almost impossible. Young Ross rushed to the high-road, and 170 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. reached the side of it which was nearest him, just as the carriage, swaying to and fro, seemed on the point of upsetting into the farther ditch. A mass of loose timber lay behind him, and if the carriage reached it, a frightful accident must be the inevitable- result. As the horses, wild with terror, dashed past Victor, and were already within a few feet of the scattered timber, the young man caught the near horse by the rein, close to the bit, and putting forth all his herculean strength, attempted to stop them in their wild career. Strong as he was, he only succeeded in breaking the force of the impetus the carriage had received on its whirl down the hill. The horses, checked indeed by his iron grasp, nevertheless dashed a few paces farther forward, carrying Victor off THE RESULT OF THE DRIVE. 171 his feet, and dragging him with them, as he still tugged at the near horse's rein. His weight, however, and the sharp check given to their pace by his powerful wrist, prevented the animals leaping the timber, as they otherwise would have done. They both stumbled over it instead, and felU bringing the carriage to a standstill with a quick jerk, which sent the coachman flying over their heads, and the gentleman, who up to now had still been standing up, right out of the carriage on to the horses' backs. The pole was smashed, the carriage itself in spHnters, but it had not upset. The horses, their knees broken, lay quietly enough now, half buried in the debris of the fore-part of the barouche, and jammed in between the pieces of timber over which they had originally fallen. But where was the youno^ hero who had saved the hves of the 172 COUNTY VEESUS COUNTER. human occupants of the carriage ? He had fallen under the horse whose rein he had held from the first, and as the blood slowly trickled from beneath the fallen animal, it was impossible to judge whether the red stream was from him or it. In a moment the traces were cut ; and at last, after great difficulty, the young man was rescued from his perilous position ; his arms torn and bleeding, his clothes literally hanging in tatters from his body, his face and hair covered with dust and blood. At first he seemed hardly conscious, and looked round him with the air of a man but half-awakened from a dream. Then he saw Diana by his side, with such a look of mingled admiration and terror upon her face as he would never forget to his dying day, and he smiled faintly as he recognised her, and then swooned right away. The coachman had pitched on his head and THE RESULT OF THE DRIVE. 173^ had been carried in an unconscious coadition into Ross's office. Mr. Trevor had escaped with a few bruises and a severe shakins"^ while Lady Adela and Diana w^ere entirely unhurt. The horses were so terribly injured that Mr. Trevor at once gave orders for them to be shot. Victor was carried into his father's office. There was only one sofa, and on that lay the coachman, still unconscious. Victor was laid upon the floor. Tom Ross leaned over him. There was anguish on the father's face, but he had not spoken, except to send off for Dr. Grain and Mr. Bone, the instant that the accident had happened. The blood from Victor's wounds had stopped flowing, but his yellow hair and his beard were clotted with it. Altogether it was a dreadful sight. Then Dr. Grain arrived and shook his head, and said that both w^ere very serious 174 COUNTY A^ERSUS COUNTER. •cases, very serious indeed ; and then Mr. Bone came and said there was no real harm done to either of them, and that he would stake Lombard Street to a China orange he would pull them through in an hour, and have them as right as a trivet in three days. This free contradiction offended Dr. Grain ; and Mr. Bone's smart manner and noisy self-assertion offended him still more. But Dr. Grain was wrong, and the dapper young surgeon was right, for within an hour the coachman was on his way home in the butcher's cart, and Victor Ross was so far recovered as to be able to give directions for the further unlading of the timber. Still Victor was very much cut about, and one of his arms was in a sling, and a scalp wound had had to be sewn up. He looked very white indeed, and the fire of his keen blue eyes was quite extinguished, for undoubtedly, as even Mr. Bone admitted when the danger was THE RESULT OF THE DRIVE. 175 over, and he had pulled his patient through, Victor Ross had very nearly gone over to the silent majority that afternoon. While Victor had remained unconscious, Diana had remained calm. She had taken her directions from the medical men, and had acted upon them with promptitude and •decision, betraying but little emotion and no aversion to the sight of blood. She had taken upon herself to bathe Victor's temples, ^nd had washed out the dust and blood from his beard and hair without showing the sHghtest nervousness or embarrassment. Lady Adela had taken up her post by the unconscious coachman, and her father was •engaged in giving orders for the poor horses to be put out of their misery, and getting the wreck of the carriage out of the way. But when Mr. Bone pronounced Victor out of danger, and the young fellow's eyes had unclosed to find the girl's face close to 176 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. his, and her hand engaged in bathing his. brow, Diana had suddenly gone up to her mother's side, and had said simply but earnestly : " Mother, I feel ill ; Mr. Ross is better, will you take me home '?" Then she had sat down trembling all over, and Mr. Trevor had put her and her mother into a fly, and had sent them home. Mr. Trevor stayed with the Rosses, but he was much upset and could hardly frame the expression of his earnest gratitude. CHAPTEE XYII. THE HOWAKDS " 'aVE A FEW FRIENDS TO DINNER. " iHE afternoon episode had certainly not improved Mrs. Broom's temper, which had at no time been angehc ; and the prospect of " taking a bit of dinner," as Mrs. Howard had expressed it, at Arundel Lodge, was hardly hkely to soothe her irrita- tion. Mrs. Broom detested dining at Arundel Lodge. As Barker had reminded Miss Priscilla, " them Howards w^ere not pushing VOL. I. ' 12 178 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. people." They Avere vulgar and were content to remain so. They would be glad if their girls married well, but they were content that they should remain single if the girls themselves were so minded. They owned that they felt like fish out of water in the society of gentle-people, and therefore they courted no society above the rank that had, as it were, been thrust on them by living in a large house of their own. Society of some sort, however, they felt they must have for the girls' sake, and as Mr. Howard was fond of good living, and quite incapable of appreciating any sort of music beyond a music-hall comic song, society, with the Howards, naturally took the form of giving dinners. But Mrs. Broom was not only an ambitious woman, she was a clever Avoman. When she had married Billy Broom, she had been as illiterate, as vulgar, and as coarse as her THE Howards' dinner-party. 179 husband ; but she had brains herself and she had married a man with brains, and fortune had smiled on them very early in their wedded life. She had herself brouo-ht her husband some ten thousand pounds, the judicious management of which had increased his business to an imnaense extent ; and in press of work, she had more than once shown herself quite as 'cute a '' man of business " as her husband. Failures they had had, it is true, notably the great smash at the time of Genista's birth, when Mrs. Broom's ten thousand pounds had vanished in the general wreck, and it had looked as though they would have had to begin the world again. But Mr. Howard had stepped in and had saved Mr. Broom's credit, thouoii he could not save his money, and business had gone on as before ; and by the time Plantagenet was born the Brooms had once more com- manded fortune. 12—2 180 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Mrs. Broom had educated herself along with her children, and being a woman of no mean capacity and plenty of brain-power, she could now mix with the upper classes without often betraying her humble origin. Her father had been a " three-halfpenny '* man like her husband, and had amassed a large fortune at last as a dust-contractor in the neighbourhood of Wapping, after having experienced many vicissitudes as a travelling chiropodist, a cheap Jack, and the showman of a fat lady and a learned pig at regattas, races, and country fairs. But Mrs. Broom, being a woman who had a head on her shoulders, saw no reason in all this why she should not herself stand in the forefront of county society, nor why her children should not intermarry with the highest nobles in the land. Money they had made, land they had bought, knowledge they had learned. Mrs. Broom was quite THE HOWAKDS' DIN XEE-P ARTY. 181 determined to make the best use of all three in her efforts to stand upon the highest pinnacle of fashion and exclusiveness. But the Howards stood in her way. She could not drop them. She could not be actually uncivil to them, remembering all that had passed in early struggling days ; nor would Mr. Broom leave Buncombe, as she had once or twice suggested, and settle somew^here where Howards would cease from troubling, and Brooms be free to soar to any heights they pleased. In a worldly point of view' it was hard lines on Mrs. Broom. Anyhow Mrs. Broom hated the Howards. Genista liked the Howards, but then every one knew that Genista was a fool. Mrs. Broom was wont to thank God that Plantagenet was not like Genista. Mrs. Broom entered Mrs. Howard's " best parlour " in a very bad humour indeed, and 182 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. the people who she found had been asked to meet her, were just those whom she had most wished to avoid. There were the Hunts — Mr. Hunt was the owner of the paper mills at Shaleford, that were so obnoxious to Lord Margate — Mr. Hunt, and his wife, and his wife's brother, who was the station-master at Shalemouth, but who had managed to get a holiday for a day or two, which he was spending with his sister, so as to be near at hand in case of railway accidents. The young man s name was Boodle, and Mrs. Broom was extremely angry at his being included in the company at dinner. When- ever she went to Inchester on a Friday to shop, as all the " county " had done from time immemorial, she would have to ac- knowledsfe the Shalemouth station-master as she passed through by train, for Inchester was twenty miles from Olton Priors, and altogether too far to drive. It was really THE HOWARDS' DINNER-PARTY. 183 too bad of Mrs. Howard to have asked the station-master. The guards and porters would be asked next ! Then there were the Broughtons — Mr. and Mrs., and Mrs. Broughton's sister, Miss Spink. Mr. Broughton was an attorney in a fairish way of business in Olton Priors, a brisk chatty Uttle man, who could tell you the genealogies and rentals of everybody in the '' county," from Lord Margate and his peers down to a retired pork-butcher. But Mr. Broughton was not a gentleman, even Mrs. Broom could tell that, and he was dis- agreeably inquisitive about what did not concern him. Mr. Broughton got into a good many " county " houses through being a partner in an old-established firm, who had been " men of business " to several of the old county families, but Mrs. Broom had quite made up her mind that Mr. Broughton should never set foot in Buncombe. 184 COFNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Then there was the Rev. Celestine Chan- nmg, the curate of St. Mark's chapel of ease, a clean-shaven, melancholy -looldng young priest, who bit his nails, and was said to have a ^' reedy tenor " voice. He played the flute too, and was altogether musically inclined. Being an ardent Kitualist, he never dofled his priestly garments, but always came to dinner in the clothes he had worn while parishing. Sometimes this was disagreeable, but then, ^^dear Mr. Channing was so much in earnest." Mrs. Broom thought earnest- ness and a clean shirt might go together ; and even Mr. Howard had been heard to say that a ^^ clean boiled rag would do the parson no harm ;" but Penelope always would have him included at dinner-parties, and at present Mr. Howard saw no reason why the parson should not get " a good blow out," as Mr. Howard called it, wiienever there was " extra grub going." THE HOWARDS' DINNER-PAETY. 18.> Lastly there was Mr. Bone, — Mr. Pericles Bone, as it was printed on his visiting-cards. Mr. Bone^ as has been seen, was a smart young " sawbones " with smart manners and a smart wit. He drove too a smart dog- cart, while Dr. Grain still crawled about in ]iis oHve-green pill-box, and he was smart in his dress, and his tastes, and his language. Mr. Pericles Bone had not long started business on his own account, and there was still a considerable flavour of the medical student clinging to him, but he made his- way by sheer impudence and braggadocio, and having no one but old Dr. Grain to compete Avith, seemed likely to succeed in his calling. Mr. Bone's conversation was freely garnished with slang, the slang of the New Cut and the Seven Dials, and he could sing a very good comic song, almost as well as a music-hall professional, and infuse genuine vulgarity inta it which always delighted Mr. Howard. 186 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Mr. Howard led the way into dinner with Mrs. Broom, followed by Mr. Hunt and Mrs. Broughton. Then came Mr. Broughton and Mrs. Hunt, then the Bev. Celestine and Genista Broom, then Planta- genet and Miss Spink. Mr. Boodle offered his arm to Camilla, and Pericles Bone his to Penelope. Mr. Broom and Mrs. Howard brought up the rear. *' 'Ave you 'eard of the accident to Mr. Trevor's carriage'?" said Mr. Howard in a very loud tone of voice, almost before the Bev. Celestine had finished saying grace ; '* very bad smash, both 'orses obliged to be shot, and that young timber-chap Boss 'alf killed in preventing their all being drowned. Bone was there ; 'e will tell you all about it. Speak up, Bone." No ! nobody had heard anything about the accident, and all eyes were turned on Pericles Bone for an account of it. THE HOWARDS' DINNEK-PARTY. 187 *' It is too shocking," said Mrs. Broom, who saw her opportunity for showing the world that she at any rate was on visiting- terms with the Duke's daughter, and there- fore by imphcation considerably above her company. "Why, Lady Adela was only calling at Buncombe this very afternoon, and this must have occurred immediately after she left us. I wonder we never heard of it. We must send up to inquire early to-morrow. Poor dear Lady Adela." Now considering the terms upon which Mrs. Broom and Lady Adela had parted, his wife's affectation of sympathy was almost too much for Mr. Broom. He bmied his face in his napkin, under pretext of a violent fit of coughing. Mrs. Broom looked daggers but said no- thing. Genista, who from seeing so much 'cute- ness on her father's part, and so much false- ]S8 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. hood on her mother's, had, by that natural reaction so often seen from one generation to- another, taken to being simple-minded and truthful, blushed crimson at her mother's hypocritical speech ; but as she had already plunged into the question — a tnuch-vexed one just at that time — as to what precise shade of green was enjoined by the Church for the fringe of the altar-cloth on the nine- teenth Sunday after Trinity, she had no- attention to spare for more mundane matters till her conscience had been satisfied on this point, which the Rev. Celestine was doing his best to explain to her. CHAPTER XVIII. GIVES SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ROSS FAMILY. ICTOK ROSS was not much known to the set who were gathered round Mr. Howard's mahogany, and by those to whom he was known he was not much hked. Therefore, though most people had the decency to express some hope that he was not seriously hurt, his share in the rescue of the Trevors made less impression than it would otherwise have done. The Rosses kept so entirely to themselves, that in reality no one knew exactly what to 190 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. make of them. To live in the same place with people year after year without making their acquaintance, is in itself always enough to breed an unreasoning antagonism. The Kosses had never called on any one in the neighbourhood, and the neighbourhood had revenged itself by saying '' that it was a good thing the Kosses knew their place." The Bosses were certainly not people of any position, that was obvious enough. Every one knew that Tom Koss had been the son of a carpenter in Olton Priors, who had made a little money, and had married the daughter of a well-to-do farmer in the neighbourhood. The carpenter had been well known for miles round for his pro- digious strength, and the farmer's daughter, whom he had married, had been equally well known for her beauty and good sense. To the carpenter and his wife had been born one son, the Tom Koss who had wooed and won THE ROSS FAMILY. 191 Eva Leslie, the Rector's daughter, and wha was now hving at Black Rock. Tom Ross had originally followed his father's trade, after some years at a well-known grammar- school at In Chester ; but his education had tended to make him rather above his work, and an opening offered him in the Canadian timber-trade had been joyfully embraced by his parents. After that, Tom Ross had prospered greatly in Canada, and at last had returned and married the Rector's dauohter. Then he had taken his bride to Canada, and there Victor and Eva had been born, the girl eight years after the boy ; and in Canada the children had been reared, till it was time for Victor to go to an EngUsh public school. Then Tom Ross and his wife had settled down at Black Rock, sufficiently far from Olton Priors to avoid the necessity of mixing 192 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. with the townspeople, but sufficiently near Tom's parents to be with them daily during the last years of their lives. Tom Boss was a landed proprietor both in Sandshire and in Canada, but to the good people of Olton Priors he was still the carpenter's son. On this account the pro- fessional sets fought shy of the Ross family. Village apothecaries and country attorneys considered themselves a peg above a car- penter's son. On the other hand, the trades- people remembered that Mrs. Ross was the daughter of their late Rector, who had been deservedly beloved in Olton Priors, so they, too, kept away, and the Rosses were left much to themselves. There were other reasons, however, why the Rosses were unpopular in Olton Priors. Sandshire was a county in which the large majority of people in the villages and country towns were dissenters from the Established THE ROSS FAMILY. 193 Church, while those who were not dissenters held, as a rule, the strono^est evano-eUcal opinions, and Olton Priors was a very strong- hold of the extreme Low Church party. Now Tom Ross was a man who had knocked about the world more than most.; he had picked up all sorts of free notions in Canada and the States, which, as Olton Priors put it, ^' wouldn't wash " among Sand- shire folk. Tom Poss was a man whose daily life was pervaded by religious principle. He was eminently a religious man, honest, straightforward, charitable, and just ; but Tom Poss had never been seen inside the doors of either church or chapel at Olton Priors, and in consequence he was set down as being desperately wicked. Mrs. Poss had attended the parish church while she lived, and had taken her children with her ; but after her death — which occurred when Victor was about twenty years of age — no member VOL. I 13 194 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. of the Koss family had been seen at any service in Olton Priors. Tom Ross was much blamed for this. Mr. Golightly had been asked to speak to him on the subject, but Mr. Golightly had declined to interfere, and the Reverend Celestine, who — at the instigation of his flock — had been persuaded to rebuke Tom Ross for his carelessness in the matter of attending divine worship, had received an answer which prevented his ever recurring to the subject a second time. Victor rode to hounds occasionally, when the meet was in his own neighbourhood, and Planty Broom knew him by sight in conse- quence. The other Brooms had seen him at work in his timber-yard, as they drove from Buncombe to Olton Priors ; and Mrs. Broom was aware that Miss Priscilla was interested in the young man, from having known his mother in former days ; but otherwise the Brooms were complete strangers to the THE ROSS FAMILY. 195 Kosses, and, as far as they could judge, intended to remain so. Mr. Broughton, it is true, had said a few words to the elder Ross from time to time, in the hope that business might some day accrue from that quarter, but Mr. Broughton had been snubbed — though he was not likely to own it — and the Ross family were no favourites of his. However, Mr. Broughton had lived long enough in Sandshire to know all about the Ross genealogy, and came to the front with all sorts of stories for the benefit of Mr. Howard's guests, now that the accident had brought the name of Ross prominently for- ward. Mr. Broughton had been ])laced on Mrs. Broom's right. He was rather afraid of Mrs. Broom, and was glad of any subject for dis- cussion in which he could excite the smallest interest in her mind. Mrs. Broom loathed 13—2 196 COUNTY VEKSUS COUNTER. Mr. Brougliton, but she Avas always ready to hear scandals about the people in the neighbourhood. Local knoAvledge could not but strengthen her o^^n position. ^' The mother of this young man was a person of superior position, I believe," she began, turning from Mr. Howard to Mr. Broughton. " She was the daughter of old Leslie, the former Kector of the parish," answered the attorney. '^ Terrible mesalliance! Old people frightfully cut up ! Created quite a sensation in the place, I 'ye heard my father say." Mr. Broughton's father had been head clerk to the firm of which Mr. Broughtou was now junior partner.' " What was the reason of her infatuation V asked Mrs. Broom. " Heaven knows ! She might have married anybody she pleased. Major FitzHerbert ' up to ' Pegwell " (Mr. Broughton was Sandshire THE ROSS FAMILY. 197 bred, and burst out into provincialisms pretty frequently) ^^ was madly in love with her. She refused him three times (afterwards he naarried his cook and died of drink). The last Squire Trevor — the present man s cousin — died a bachelor for her sake ; and a certain Captain Minchin, who was quartered at Inchester, proposed to her the first time he ^ver met her at the Inchester county ball. He was a rich man, too, was Minchin, had property ' down round ' by fihalemouth, and was considered a tip-top county swell." " And she married the carpenter s son after all V said Mrs. Broom, now thoroughly interested. " Poor girl ! how bitterly she must have repented !" " Not at all, ma'am, not at all. From all I hear she was one of the haj^piest women in the world." '' But his family, Mr. Broughton ! I sup- pose Mr. Boss's father was about x)n a par IDS COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. with the butcher and the village black- smith." '' At the time of Tom Ross's birth, the father was a well-to-do man. He had married a farmer's daughter, you see, with a goodish bit of money, and moved more among the yeomen than the artisan class, and by the time Tom Ross married old Leslie's daughter, the old people had retired from trade alto- gether, and were settled in a snug little farm of their own close by." '' Was this Tom Ross so very attractive then '?" asked Mrs. Broom. ^' I was quite a lad when Tom Ross came back from Canada the first time," answered Mr. Broughton, '' not more than sixteen or seventeen, and I remember meeting him in the Priory woods, as he was on his way home from shooting. He certainly was at that time the finest man I ever remember to have seen. Very tall and very powerfully built. THE KOSS FAMILY. 199 and with a look of exuberant health and vigour rarely found even among our own countrymen. Young Victor is wonderfully like what his father was, but one does not worship at the shrine of muscularity at forty- six as one did at sixteen. Victor Ross seems to me to be a remarkably fine young man, but his fiither appeared to my boyish eyes as nothing short of a demi-god. CHAPTEE XIX. INTRODUCES THE READER TO " COUNTER" SOCIETY, OUR glass is empty, Mr. Brough- ton," said Mr. Howard, interrupt- ing the conversation. '^ James, champagne to Mr. Broughton. Prime wine, sir, that ! might drink a bottle without feeling it ! Got it a bargain from Slocum and Small- toes. Worth a guinea a bottle, sir, if it's worth a silver sixpence." Slocum and Smalltoes' champagne was doubtless excellent. If Mr. Howard's guests did not find it out for themselves, there was " COUNTER " SOCIETY. 201 a,lways their host at hand to tell them. Mr. Howard's remarks at his own table were usually a running fire of eulogistic comments upon his bill of fare generally and his wine in particular. This was one of Mr. Howard's little ways; and it had to be swallowed, with Mr. Howard's other vulgarities, by those who accepted Mr. Howard's hospi- talities. Mr. and Mrs. How^ard always liked to feel a real mterest in the subject in hand. When eating was that subject, they showed a proper interest in eating ; told their guests how the dish was made, how much butter or cream was needed, what it cost, and how it should be served. Mr. Howard always knew of some special twelve dozen of wine, too, which was '' going, sir, dirt cheap." Mr. Howard had bought and laid down other twelve dozen of the same vintage and same year; and "the man who 202 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. could let slip such a chance of getting good sound wine at such a price was a duflfer, sir — undoubtedly a duffer." At one dinner it was sherry, at another madeira, at a third port ; but there were always some loose dozens of wine to be had, apparently for next to nothing, from '' Slocum and Smalltoes," whenever a man dined with Mr. Howard. Pericles Bone, who dined there pretty fre- quently, had once told a friend in confidence that he believed old Howard was '' Slocum and Smalltoes " in one. Some people thought a little of this sort of talk went a long way ; but it seemed suited to the majority of Mr. Howard's guests, though there was a sameness about the way in which both he and his wife began their remarks which tended to be wearisome. Mrs. Howard was great in giving receipts. She always commenced with, " Take a pint o' cream." Now, the Kev. Celestine, for '' counter" society. 203 instance, whose stipend was but eighty pounds a year, and who got no help from his family, save six pairs of knitted worsted socks every winter from a maiden aunt, was hardly likely to feel interested in a dish whose simplest ingredient apparently was '' a pint o' cream." Mrs. Howard and her '^ pint o' cream," however, had to be ac- cepted with the bill of fare. From the host's end of the table, on the other hand, conversation w^as always pre- faced by the remarks, ^' You couldn't buy that glass of wine, sh, for ;" and then would follow imaginary prices of a high figure ; while the discussion was always brought to a close by Mr. Howard saying,. ^' But I know a house, sir, that can afford to sell you that same wine at cost price — at cost price J sir." The name of that house w^as eagerly demanded. It was always- " Slocum and Smalltoes." 204 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Mrs. Broom was not a gentlewoman, nor a woman of any refinement ; still she may perhaps be excused for loathing a dinner at the Howards beyond every other species •of abomination. At last dinner was over. The consump- tion of " the leg of mutton and bottle of dry sherry " had taken three hours and a half ; and when Mrs. Howard had signalled Mrs. Broom across the epergne, everybody knew it would be another hour before the gentle- men would leave their wine. The ladies departed. Mr. Howard changed ends and gave the curate and Mr. Broom the full benefit of " Slocum and Smalltoes " until coffee was brought in. Mr. Broom was by that time very jolly ; Mr. Howard's wine had been fully appreciated by him, and he had promised to lay down any number of dozen of Slocum and Smalltoes' "pale dry " and Amontillado. SOCIETY. 205 " 'Ave a wash of sherry, gents '?" Mr. Howard said for the third time. " Just a wash. No ! Then suppose w^e join the ladies." As soon as Mr. Howard entered his " best parlour," he threw himself into an arm-chair, and wxnt to sleep. If the Queen herself had been dining with Mr. Howard, he would not have been able to keep awake. He would snore frightfully for some minutes, then wake with a violent start, saying,. '' 'Abit, madam ; sorry I am, but 'abit is second nature," and then he would snore again. The Reverend Celestine Channing was asked to sing. The young man w^as Avell- intentioned ; but he had not much voice, and he had no notion of how to sing. Penelope, who had volunteered to accompany him, could never play at sight, and the result, as considered in discord with Mr. Howard's. "206 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. snores, was painful to the last de- gree. Then Miss Spink, who was the musician par excellence in those parts, executed some brilliant fantasias in seven sharps, and a symphony in '' A minor," which for melan- choly beat any caterwaul ever heard in 01 ton Priors, and which made Camilla's Skye terrier howl with such acute agony, as to wake Mr. Howard once for all from his sonorous siesta. '^ Bravo ! bravo 1" shouted Mr. Howard, anxious to show that he had not missed a note of Miss Spink's performance. " There is nothing I like so much as a good stirring ''march,' and you do play fust rate. Miss Spink." Miss Spink tittered, not best pleased either with Mr. Howard or the howling terrier. '* And now let us have a sonq; of the ricrht CC ^^T-r*Tr«T^^ »» COUNTER SOCIETY. 207 sort," exclaimed Mr. Howard, as if the per- formances of his guests up to now had been inflictions which he had borne ^^dth resigna- tion, but had not hstened to with pleasure. '' Now, Bone, give us ' Little Binks,' or ' I'd like to be a Swell,' or one of those regular ' slap-up ' songs of yours, with a full €horus at the end of every verse." But this was too much for Mrs. Broom. It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back. She had borne the ^' quavering tenor" and the hodge-podge of Penelope's janghng accompaniment, the fantasia in seven sharps and the symphony in " A minor," the snores of her host and the howls of the Skye terrier ; but a ^' slap-up " song from Pericles Bone, with a fuU chorus between each verse, she neither could nor would stand. She tapped her lord on the shoulder with her fan, and he saw by the look on her face 208 COUNTY VEESUS COUNTER. that chains of iron would not keep her any- longer in the house. Mr. Broom sighed, for he dearly loved a music-hall song with a full chorus at the end of each verse ; but Mrs. Broom looked dan- gerous, and he preferred that the explosion should be postponed. So the Brooms took their leave ; and as they passed through the hall to their car- riage, they heard the voice of Pericles Bone trolling out a stanza of the coarsest, vul- garest, stupidest words that imbecility had ever wedded to jangle, and a full chorus fol- lowing it from the united throats of Howard, Hunt, Bone, Broughton, and Boodle, that would not have been amiss in a '^penny gaff" in the Old Kent Boad or Whitechapel. For some time Mrs. Broom was speech- less with anger. When she did speak, she did so with emphasis, and what she said was this : i< .-./^TTXTfim-n " COUNTER SOCIETY. 209 " Gratitude or no gi'atitude, favour or no favour, I ^\dll never dine at that house again ' — no, not if I hve to be a hundred." And from the tone of her voice, Mr. Broom behoved that she would probably keep her word. VOL. I. 14 CHAPTER XX. THE duke's daughter CALLS ON THE TIMBER - MERCHANT. LL that had occurred at Ross's wharf had considerably dwarfed the im- portance attached to the unplea- santness with the Broom family in the minds of Mr. and Lady Adela Trevor. Still, something would have to be done. Had the Trevors been wealthy people, who spent the season in London, went abroad in the spring, and to their moors in the autumn, it would not have mattered much whether. THE duke's daughter. 211 they remained on good terms with the Brooms or no. But the Trevors were comparatively poor. It would be all they could do to live on the property that had at last come to them. There would be no maro-in for travellinor, or for seasons in town. They w^ould probably have to live at the Priory all the year round ; and to have a feud wdth some of their nearest neighbours would, to say the least of it, be highly unpleasant. Still, how could it be averted? That Diana should be expected to apologise to Plantagenet Broom w^as, of course, out of the question — at any rate, until compara- tively friendly relations had been established between the young people ; and that Plan- tagenet should take the initiative in making peace with a young woman who had snatched his whip out of his hand, and called him '' a cowardly brute," was a con- 14—2 212 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. tingency on which it was hardly worth while to speculate. Mr. Trevor was greatly vexed that such an incident should have occurred at the very outset of their residence in Sandshire. It behoved him, on every account, to get on smoothly with such neighbours as had pro- perty contiguous to his own ; besides which, if the story got wind, people would think twice before asking Diana to their houses. To a man of Mr. Trevor's punctilious cour- tesy, it was really terrible that his daughter should have so far forgotten herself Lady Adela would have felt it more had not Mrs. Broom's subsequent impertinence in re- buking Diana when she was herself standing by, seemed to condone in great measure any breach of good mannei's of which Diana had been guilty. In a week's time, the Trevors would have to meet the Brooms at Miss Priscilla's THE duke'.s daughter. 213 garden-party ; and now that the Margates' visit had been returned, they would be cer- tain to be asked to dine at Coddesley before very long. The Brooms would be pretty sure to be asked to meet them by Lady Margate. To have a standing feud with Buncombe because Diana had objected, in her violent way, to Plantagenet Broom thrashing his ow^n dog, was really too ridiculous. The story, if it were discussed, would make the Trevors a laughing-stock in Sandshire. Eventually Mr. Trevor did what had appeared to most people in that neighbour- hood the right thing to do for some thirty years past — he determined to consult Miss Priscilla. As flowers turn to the sun for warmth and light and life, so did all things human turn to Miss Priscilla for advice and consolation. Keasons w^ere not wanted. It was the natural 214 COUNTY' VERSUS COUNTER. thing to do. There is generally some one in a country town community who fills this position to her friends of high degree and humble rank equally ; in Olton Priors it was Miss Priscilla. But before Mr. Trevor would Avalk into Olton Priors to the Manor House, there was one thing must be done, one before all others, and that was to inquire for Victor Ross in person at Black Rock. Mr. Trevor did not think that it was enough that he should go alone. He was of opinion that Lady Adela should accompany him, and Diana too, to express their sincere gratitude to the brave young fellow who had come by such hurt in their salvation. Lady Adela not only agreed with her husband, but volunteered to walk through the woods to Black Rock. Accompanied by Diana, they started as soon as breakfast was over. Tom Ross was leaning over his garden- THE duke's daughter. 215 ^te smoking his morning pipe, when the Trevors came up the glen. Had it not been for his grey beard he might have passed for ten years younger than he really was. The extraordinary freshness of his complexion, the brightness of his eyes, and the upright- ness of his bearing, almost gave the lie to the whiteness of his hair. He was an immense man, as tall as Victor, and much stouter, as became his years. He received his visitors with evident pleasure, and escorted them through the gardens to the cottage, where they found Victor and his sister sitting in the jessamine-covered porch. The young fellow rose to meet them with painful difficulty. He was bruised and stiff from head to heel; his left arm was in a sling, and the extreme pallor of his com- plexion showed how great had been the strain even upon his magnificent physique. No woman on earth could be more gracious 216 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. than Lady Adela Trevor when she chose ;• on this occasion slie did choose. She went out of her way to show the Rosses, by every means in her powder, how sincerely grateful to Victor they all were, and how highly they rated his heroism and self-sacrifice. She took care, moreover, to say mosfc of what she did say to Victor's father and sister, not to him- self. By her manner alone she trusted tc^ convey to him her thanks. While Lady Adela was talking within the cottage to Eva Koss, Mr. Trevor had asked to see the ^' Wilderness," of which, he said, Diana had told him much ; and thus Diana and Victor had been left a little while alone. Shyness was not much in Diana s line ; yet somehow, she knew not why, never had she felt so embarrassed as when thus face to face with Victor Boss. This was the man^ whom she had told Miss Priscilla would be the better for not thinking quite so much of THE duke's daughtek. 217 himself, the man who ought to be told that he was not quite such a fine fellow as he thought himself to be ; and this was also the man who had nearly lost his life in saving her and her parents from destruction. As- she thought of these things, she looked up at Victor, and their eyes met. Diana flushed rosy red. The silence was awkward. She wished he would speak ; but he only kept his eyes on her, rather mournfully, she thought, and he never said a word. *^We shall never forgive ourselves for having brought you to tliis pass," she blurted out at last. '' I thank God that I was there," said he,, with his steady blue eyes still fixed on her face. '' I thought we must have upset long before we got to the bottom of the hill ; never shall I forget the set look upon papa's face as we came whirlinsr down to the river." 1'18 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. ** It was fortunate you and Lady Adela had the presence of mind to sit still ; many women would have tried to jump out." " Papa said ' Sit still !' in a tone we have heard once or twice before in our lives. Nobody ever thinks of disobeying papa when he uses that tone." *^ How is your coachman ?" asked Victor ; " he seemed only stunned, as far as I could tell." '* He is all right again this morning. He has a great bump on the back of his head, but otherwise he was not hurt." '^ It is very kind of you all to come and look after me this morning ; I hope the walk will not be too much for Lady Adela, or for you." " For me ! I love a walk on a June morn- ing, even if it had not been to see — to see how you were feeling after such a dreadful time." THE duke's DAUGHTEE. 219 Then she felt she had ahnost said too much, and the tell-tale colour mounted again to throat and cheeks and brow. She turned away, and smelt at the jessamine that trailed its fragrant boughs over the porch. The young man scanned her closely. What a bright, lovely child she looked! He seemed to gain strength by her very presence even, and he had only seen her thrice ! '* We have no jessamine at the Priory," she said, " and no myrtles either." " The soil is the same as this," he an- swered. '' Would you like some cuttings from om- plants ?" '' Very much. I mean to take to garden- ing myself, and I shall have a ' wilderness ' of my own." *' I will bring you cuttings as soon as I am all right again." 220 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. " Yes, do ; and help me to plant them in the proper way." Then Mr. Trevor and Mr. Ross joined them, and Lady Adela and Eva came out of the cottage. " You will come and see me, my dear V' said Lady Adela to Eva as she said good- bye. '/ I am glad that we are within walk- ing distance of one another." Then the Trevors had returned home, and Mr. Trevor went off to the Manor House to consult Miss Priscilla about Diana and Mr. Plantagenet Broom. CHAPTER XXI. ISS PRISCILLA, wearing a large blue sunshade and a pair of gar- den-gloves, was busy, trowel in hand, amono^ her o-eraniums and calceolarias when Mr. Trevor made his appearance at the Manor House. Bruno was watching his mistress from the * lawn, where he lay in the sun, with his nose between his fore-paws ; and the tortoise-shell Tom was iiibbing him- self gently against Miss Priscilla's dress, as she bent over her flower-beds. 222 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. " You find me at my favourite occupation, cousin," said the old lady, as she ungloved, and deposited her trowel in the geranium bed. '* I was coming up to the Priory this morning to inquire after you all, on my way to Black Rock to see after Victor Ross." " We are none the worse at the Priory," said Mr. Trevor ; '' but I fear that young 'protege of yours is a good deal hurt. We have all been to Black Bock this morning. The young man is up and about, but he looks very pale. Had it not been for him, we should probably have all been killed." " Indeed, you seem to have had a narrow escape. Oh ! how thankful I am that Victor was on the spot ! How is your coachman, cousin T *' Not a bit the worse, and at present with nothing to do but to look after Diana's pony. Both the carriage-horses had to be shot." LADY Margate's " pl atonic." 22.^ '^A matter of three or four hundred pounds out of your pocket ! And the car- riage I suppose smashed to bits V " In sjDhnters. Five hundred pounds won't cover the cost of yesterday afternoon. But we must be thankful no bones have been broken. The consequences might have been too awful to think of." ^' You were coming away from Buncombe^ I suppose V " Yes ; and that reminds me of my chief object in coming to you this mom- ing." Then Mr. Trevor told Miss Priscilla his story, as they sat under the big cedar at the side of the lawn. "It is very awkward — very," said Miss Priscilla, when she had heard him to the end. " What does your wife say ?" " She is more vexed with Mrs. Broom than with Diana." 224 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. " Naturally enough. Is Diana given to taking the law into her own hands ?" " She is wayward and very impulsive, and I am afraid her mother and I have both spoilt her ; still, I do not think anything but the ill-usage of a dumb creature would have made her forget herself as she did at Bun- combe. Devotion to animals is almost a religion with Diana." '' It is very awkward — very," said Miss Priscilla again. '' I hardly know what to advise. Mr. Broom will not quarrel, and Genista is a very good girl, and possessed of a remarkably sweet temper; but the mother and son are " And Miss Priscilla shrugged her shoulders with much depreciatory emphasis. " You don't think you could say a word at Buncombe ?" suggested Mr. Trevor. " It will never do to have a feud about such a silly trifle." .r- it — ,^^, '' 90 LADY MARGATE S *' PLATONIC. 'Z'lO "Certainly not; but I do not think I should have any right to interfere. You see, in the first place, I am a Trevor, and in the next, I am an old woman. Planty Broom has no liking for old women; and, though he is always civil to me, I am quite aware that he prefers my room to my company." " Another instance of his bad taste. But, seriously, I do not see how we are to meet the Brooms until matters are on a pleasanter footing than they are at present." '' I think you are making too much of it — I do, indeed. The Brooms have more to lose than you by giving importance to such a trifle. You may depend, they will meet you in a week's time as if the incident had not occurred." *' I am sure Diana will not meet young- Broom under existing circumstances," said Mr. Trevor. " She is very much ashamed of VOL. I. 15 226 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. herself ; but she is still more disgusted with him." Miss Priscilla reflected a few moments iit silence. ^^ I am not very intimate with Lady Mar- gate," the old lady said presently ; *^ but she- is always very sweet to me. She is the only person who has any influence over Planty Broom. He would rather like to comply with the suggestion of a countess. I think she might manage it, without compromising" anybody's dignity. Yes ; the more I think of it, the better I like the plan. I will see Lady Margate to-day, Philip. She is a silly woman in some things ; but she is just the person to apply to under the present cir- cumstances." " Pray do not let Lady Margate think that this is a specimen of Diana's usual be- haviour." ^* No, no ! I quite understand. Lady 227 Margate will say nothing to her husband or any one else," said Miss Priscilla, who knew very well that it was not desired that Diana's peculiarities of temper should reach Captain Norman's ears. " Trust me to manage it for you, cousin. I will go up to Black Kock now, and drive on to Coddesley in the after- noon." Then Mr. Trevor took his leave, not feel- ing quite sure that he had done wisely in allowing Lady Margate to have a hand in the matter, yet not knowing any better course to pursue. Then Miss Priscilla summoned Beer, and ordered the donkeys to be harnessed. Ac- companied by Bruno, she went first to Black Rock, to look after the invalid, who declared he should be all right in a few days, and quite w^ell in time for the garden-party ; she had some luncheon with Eva and Victor, and then she drove on to Coddesley. 15—2 228 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER Lady Margate was at home, and delighted to see Miss Priscilla. The gentlemen were away at Shalemouth for the day, to see about the ^Durchase of a steam-launch, with which they could run up and down the Shale between Olton Priors and the sea ; so Miss Priscilla had Lady Margate all to herself, and was able to explain ail the little diffi- culties of the situation from which she wished to extricate Diana without hurting the girl's dignity or sensitive feelings. Lady Margate perfectly understood, and promised to do all she could at once before the unpleasantness had had time to rankle. Though Lady Margate was weak and vain, she was good-natured, and had plenty of tact. She kept up a harmless little flirtation with Planty Broom, much to the young man's satisfaction ; and she assured Miss Priscilla that in four and twenty hours everything should LADY MAKGATe's "PLATONIC." 229 be >et right between Buncombe and the Prioiy. Then Miss Priscilla drove her donkeys home ; and Lady Margate went over to Buncombe on horseback, and dehghted Planty Broom by asking him to escort her to Pegwell, to call on the Lanes, some people who had bought Major FitzHerbert's place, when that old gentleman had at last killed himself with too many brandies and sodas. Planty Broom was arrogant and conceited, but he was no fool. He was proud of Lady Margate's friendship, and he danced at- tendance on her at all times and seasons, with great satisfaction to himself and his family, who, of course, wished the intimacy with the Margates to be cemented by every available means. The vounor man was oood-looking, and was always excellently well groomed. His 230 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. conversation, too, if slangy, was smart and amusing ; and Lord Margate did not in the least object to his wife's innocent little flirta- tion, which was carried on under his nase much more strongly than it ever was behind his back. So Lady Margate rode to Peg well with Planty Broom ; the result of which ride will become manifest in the following chapter. CHAPTER XXII. COUNTER DIPLOMACY. ISS PRISCILLA had not been tar wrong when she had told Phihp Trevor that the Brooms would be as averse to quarrelling as the Trevors them- selves. Mrs. Broom had allowed herself to build ceii;ain castles in the air even before the Trevors had ever set foot in Olton Priors, which any quarrel with the Priory folk would disperse to the four winds of heaven. These castles in the air she had communicated to her husband, and his agreement with her 232 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. had given a certain solidity to her aerial schemes. Mrs. Broom thought it high time that her son should marry. He was now twenty-five, and of course every year he would get more and more beyond his mother's influence. Mrs. Broom had heard plenty of stories- about her son, which had caused her anxiety. Planty was of an amative disposition, and though he was keen enough about most things, yet he might be made a fool of by a clever woman who cared perhaps for nothing but his money. Plantagenet Broom would be very rich. There was so much money now coming in that it would be quite unnecessary for him to- look for money with a wife. What Mrs. Broom desired for her son was aristocratic connection and county influence. By a marriaofe with Diana Trevor both would be- secured, and Mrs. Broom's castle in the air COUNTER DIPLOMACY. 233- had been built upon this foundation. When Mrs. Broom had reflected that the unfortu- nate incident about the spaniel might have- frustrated all her schemes, she could have almost whipped the poor brute again herself; but a bright thought occurred to her by which the spaniel could be made to assist in effecting a reconciliation. When Planty Broom returned to Bun- combe, after having escorted Lady Margate to Pegwell, he sought his mother on the same subject on which she had been anxious to speak to him. When the first flush of angler ao^ainst Diana had subsided, he had liimself recognised the foUy of quarrelling with people who would certainly lead society in Sandshire, simply because a girl just out of the school-room had insulted him. Had he insulted her he could have apologised, but he did not expect her to apologise to him. As far as he could see, there must be a 234 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. coolness between him and Diana ; but he did not see that on that account the two families need quarrel. He had been thinking over the matter when Lady Margate had come over to Buncombe, and was found to be in a very amenable temper by her ladyship if she could make any suggestion as to how the matter could be smoothed over. Lady Margate had thought that if he rode over himself to the Priory, to ask for the Trevors after the recent accident, it would show that on his part there was no ill feeling ; but his vanity was too much hurt for him to carry a flag of truce into the very camp of the enemy. He promised, however, to do what he could to make matters pleasant again ; and in obedience to this promise he sought his mother on his return to Buncombe. " The girl was in the wrong, and whatever happens you had best keep her there," said Mrs. Broom, after the question had been COUNTER DIPLOMACY. 235 some time under discussion, *' If you can place her under any sort of obligation to you at the same time, all the better." " I wish the dog had been drowned with the rest of the litter, that I do," said Planty sulkily. ^' Fancy all this fuss about a biiite of a spaniel which I don't believe will ever be worth the dog-tax !" " Whv not ofive the do^^: to Miss Trevor ?" said Mrs. Broom suddenly. " That would be heaping coals of fire on her head." " And keep alive the memoiy of her own bad manners at the same time, mother ; no, no ! I don't think that would help mattei*s." ** But I say it would ; the girl is of course veiy fond of dogs or she would not so have forgotten herself; because you thrashed the dog, she has a prejudice against you ; that prejudice must be removed. She will probably pretend to have apprehensions that you will ill-use the dog, because it was the 236 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. cause of all this bother. Give her the dog. By doing this you remove any possibility of her saying so, or thinking so, and you lay the girl herself under an obligation." " She will refuse it," said Planty. " She can't refuse it. She has been in the wrong, and it is everything to keep her there. Her father would not let her refuse it, even if she wished to." '*Well! let the dog go. He's a beastly cur, and will never be a credit to any one." " But you must write a note." '' I write a note ! Bosh ! I'm no hand at that sort of thino-. You write the note and I will copy it." *' It must be such a note as will make her apologise to you." " I don't agree with you. If I offend her pride, she will hate me ; I'm not thin-skinned^ mother ; let the oirl have her innings. One COUNTER DIPLOMACY. 237 way or another she shall pay for them some day." Then Mrs. Broom quite understood that, so far as Plauty was concerned, all this was to be but a hollow truce. He had not for- given Diana, and he was treasuring up her cutting words to him in his mind, till such time as he could be revensfed. This was not satisfactory to Mrs. Broom. She had already settled in her own mind that the Trevor and Fitz-Henry connection w^ould do. Then perhaps Planty could get into Parliament for the southern division of the county, and then through the duke's influence and his own money, perhaps he might be made a peer ! Who could tell ? But this was evidently not the time to hint at anything of such a kind. Mrs. Broom retired to her own sanctum, and carefully penned the note to Diana. She wi'ote. several notes one after the other, and tore them all 238 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. up. At last she was satisfied with what she had written. This was what she wrote : " Buncombe, " Jane 20th. " Dear Miss Trevor, '' I am vexed that an3rthing should have occurred on our grounds which could possibly cause you annoyance. Correction is necessary for . pupj)ies, but I am sorry it should have been necessary in your pre- sence. " The spaniel pup in question comes of a choice breed, and I am told by good judges will be worth exhibiting at the Inehester Dog Show. Will you accept him from me as a peace-offering, and let him be a bond of reconciliation between us ? He is a great favourite of mine, and I hope he will become one of yours. He answers to the name of Fido. COUNTER DIPLOMACY. 239^ "With our united kind regards, and hoping no one is the worse for the upset yesterday, *' I remain, dear Miss Trevor, " Yours very truly, '^ Plant AGENET Broom." " I hate the girl and I hate the dog !" said Planty openly, when his mother read out to him the note she wished him to copy. '' The girl's a vixen, and the dog's a cur. However, they are welcome to one another, so hero goes." Mrs. Broom had her way. She saw the note written, and she sent it that very evening with the dog (to which Planty administered a parting kick) and a basket of grapes as a present to Lady Adela from herself " That ought to square them," said Planty^ when dog, grapes, and note had been sent off. '' If it does not, the blame will rest with *240 COUNTY VEESUS COUNTER. them," said his mother ; " and if it does, they will owe you some return." ^' I want nothing from the Trevors," said Planty loftily. '' I suppose the girl thinks because she had a duke for a grandfather, she can insult a man with impunity ! 6 — I «he shall find out the difference !" ''Miss Trevor did not know it was you, Planty, and you would have admired her spirit if you had seen her do it to any one else." " All the same I'll teach her not to do it to me," said the amiable youth, as he went off to dress for dinner. The Trevors were still at dinner when the Brooms' footman arrived with the dosf, the grapes, and the note addressed to Miss Trevor. Diana read the note ; she turned very red, and handed the epistle in silence to her mother. COUNTER DIPLOMACY. 241 '*' You can leave the room, Mash," said Lady Adela to the butler, " we will ring for you in a few minutes." Then she gave the note to Mr. Trevor, saying, '' My dear, what do you wish done ?" Mrs. Broom had said that the gift of the dog would heap coals of fire on Diana's head, and Mrs. Broom was right. Coals of fire were just about what Diana did feel, but the note was so skilfully worded that there was no loophole for refusal, nor any reason to take offence. It was very humiliating to be placed under an obligation to Plantagenet Broom ; indeed, it was almost intolerable. Mr. Trevor frowned as he read the letter. It was too polite to be honest. A man who has been called a " cowardly brute " by a girl does not " come up smiling " in that sort of way, unless he has some plan of his own to serve by doing so. VOL. 1. IG 242 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. He put down the note and looked at hi^' wife. "■ I suppose Diana must keep the dog," he said, " and of course you must accept the grapes. I think we shall do well to be on our guard against these Brooms, but they must not be allowed to outdo us in courtesy."" ^' I believe the dog would have suffered, "" cried Diana, very nearly crying with mortifi- cation and annoyance ; ^' at least the poor creature is safe now, that is some consola- tion." ^^ There is nothins^ to be done but to write a very civil note of acceptance," said Lady Adela ruefully. '' The dog*s fate would be twice as bad if he were sent back to Bun- combe. Diana, my dear, you will have to make some sort of apology. Let your own good sense govern the nature of it. It would be a thousand pities to show any mortification,, whatever you may feel." Diana left the room and presently returned COUNTEH DIPLOMACY. 243 with the note she had writteD, ^vhich she gave to her parents to read. It ran thus : '' Miss Trevor presents her compHments to Mr. Plantagenet Broom, and begs to thank him for his poHte note. " Miss Trevor regrets that she should have acted with what she now feels to have been rudeness to Mr. Broom. She did not know Mr. Broom by sight, and trusts this and her devotion to animals may be her excuse. " Miss Trevor accepts the dog. She will take every care of it. *^ Lady Adela desires her thanks for the grapes and returns the basket by bearer. " The Priory : Olton Priors, ''June 20th. " P. Broom, Esq." " I know the note is stiff," said Diana, "but I can't bring myself to say pleasant things when I don't feel them." 16—2 244 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Then the note was sent by the messenger from Buncombe ; and Fido became a member of the Trevor household. Fido was brought into the dining-room and introduced to his new quarters. He was not yet full grown, and from the large size of his paws he pro- mised to be a large dog for his breed. He was a curly-haired water- spaniel, sleek, with beautiful brown eyes, and in colour black, with patches of white about him, and one white ear. Diana was not the girl to let Fido suffer because the gift of him had humiliated her ; but she would certainly have preferred that the donor should not have been Mr. Plantagenet Broom. CHAPTER XXIII. COUNTY MATCH-MAKERS. ADY MARGATE told her husband that she had called on the Lanes at Pegwell Avith Plant j Broom as an escort, and that Miss Priscilla had called on her ; but she did not mention the object of Miss Priscilla's visit. Before Lord and Lady Margate went down to dinner that evenino- thev exchano^ed ideas on the subject of Lord Margate's brother and his futm^e settlement in life, which would doubtless have greatly amused that gentle- man, had he heard them. 246 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Lord Margate and his wife generally agreed on all points, and when they did not they almost quarrelled as to which should give way to the other. The conduct of Lord and Lady Margate towards one another was unusual. People who only knew them slightty believed that it was a mere blind, and went so far as to assert that in reality they fought like cat and dog when they were alone. Lord Margate's brother and the servants knew better. A more devoted couple never breathed than this young earl and his wife. He had been a wild, fast, rackety young swell, very much given to unlimited loo and unlimited liquor, and perhaps, too, to unlimited license. He had run through his fortune and had ruined his health ; but all this had been before his marriage. He could not win back what he had lost, either money or health, but he had given up gambling and drink, and he was COUNTY MATCH-MAKERS. 247 true to his low-born Avife, and she was true to him. Yes ! he had been fast, and she — well, she had been fast too, perhaps more than fast before she married. But whatever there had been years ago in her career and in the pages of her life which were turned down, nobody in Sandshire knew anything about it. She had evidently repented of anything there might be to repent of; how otherwise could she be the devoted wife she undoubtedly was, and so trusted and beloved by her husband and that husband's brother ? Captain Norman ^showed his respect for her in every way ; and this told not a little with the county in Lady Margate's favour. A better woman would probably have failed where this one had succeeded in detaching her husband from vicious courses of every kind. He could talk to her openly without fearing that he would shock her by his follies ^48 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. . or weaknessess or the story of his unhappy l^ast. There was no need with her to keep up that guarded hyj)ocrisy which undermines confidence iii so many homes where the husband has secrets of bachelor days to hide until the hour of his release and death. Lady Margate had had an unhapj)y past too, but by mutual consent they never spoke of that. It was over, absolutely over and done with ; and perhaps she had been more sinned against than sinning. Lord Margate had known that it had been so when he married her, for she had been frank with him ; but she had not felt it necessary to bring any other name into her confession, and Lord! Margate had not liked to press a confidence which she need never have given at all, but of her own free will. They were very happy,, these two. The cloud in the past had dwindled and dwindled as it had graduall}'- descended! towards the horizon, and no ill wind had as COUNTY :MATCH -MAKERS. 24^ yet blown it back to .spoil the sunshine that at last had reached their lives. They were not clever, and the ear] had wretched health, but they were as two children pleased with the same toys, and they were fit compan- ions for each other on life's short weary journey. But on this evening as they sat in Lady Margate's dressing-room, before the first bell summoned them to get ready for dinner, Lord and Lady Margate expressed different opinions, and held different views. The subject of the debate was Captain Norman,, and the question was, Who was to be his wife? Lady Margate had the more readily fallen in ^vith. Miss Priscilla's ^dews as to the- necessity of reconcihng the Brooms and the Trevors, because in her marriage-market she had settled everything for everybody, and she did not wish her pairs to be dis- 250 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. turbed. Captain Norman was to marry Genista, and Plantagenet was to have Diana Trevor. She had laughingly said so to her husband when he had come back from Shalemouth that afternoon, and the discussion in the dressing-room was the result. "My dear Maggie," Lord Margate had said with unusual seriousness, '' I wouldn't have Charlie marry a Broom if she pos- ,sessed all the mines of Golconda ; I do not object to Genista personally. She is excellent and sweet-tempered ; but her family are unbearable ; arrogant, purse-proud, overbearing snobs ! No ! no ! Maggie ! Diana Trevor is the girl for Charlie. She is so thoroughbred, so piquante, so pretty and so vivacious ; and the Trevor connection is very good, and she is a duke's grand- •daughter." " Charlie must marry money ; you know COUNTY MATCH-MAKEES. 251 that as well as I do," his wife had answered. '' I do not believe the Trevors could afford to give their daughter anything during their own lifetime, and Mr. Trevor might live for the next forty years. He is a young man still, and has hved a quiet life. We could not help them, and your brother has next to nothing of his own." "My dear," said Lord Margate veiy gravely, "there will be Coddesley, and the property in the north. I do not care to dwell upon a subject that must give you so much pain, but I know very well my span of life cannot be long extended." Then his wife had crossed over to him and had stopped his words with her lips on his, while the tears sprang to her eyes. " Do not speak like that," she said, " such words stab me through and through. Oh ! my darling, what will become of me if you are taken from me ?" 252 COUNTY VEKSUS COUNTER. Then she had thrown herself into his arms,, and had wept upon his shoulder. " Let us hope for the best, Maggie ; there is no immediate danger, but you know what old Grain said when I was so ill before." ^^ Old Grain is an old fossil. His ideas are antediluvian. I don't in the least believe in him. A regular croaking old woman is Dr. Grain." " Still, dear, of course I have been — un- steady, and I know that my constitution is undermined. Do not let us talk of it. I only mentioned it, because I do not tliink that Charlie, as heir to the earldom, need marry any girl for money." '' Not /or money, but consider how greatly money is wanted. Charlie will hardly be content to live as Ave Hve, dear, and perhaps- there will be children." Lady Margate turned away as she said this, and the tears flowed silently again. COUNTY MATCH-MAKERS. 253 How she had longed for a child, and no child had been given her. Then it was Lord Margate's turn to com- fort his wife. " Cheer up, Maggie," he said, '' we must not allow ourselves to harp on these subjects. We have been living too quiet a life, dear, and it has got on your nerves. We must ask the Trevors to dinner. Let us do so at once ; and we must bestir ourselves by day as well, or Charlie will find Coddesley too dull for him to stay on with us." He put his arms round his wife, and dried her tears. To each the past was bitter ; but in each other both had at last found peace. CHAPTEE XXIV. MISS priscilla's garden-party. WEEK after the events recorded in the previous chapters, Miss Pris- cilla, arrayed in a lavender silk gown and a shawl of the richest lace, quite yellow with age, stood ready to receive the guests whom she had bidden to her garden- party. It was quite an event in Miss Priscilla's life. Her rooms Avere small, and her means limited ; therefore hitherto she had only attempted hospitalities on a small scale ; but MISS PRISCILLAS GARDEX-PARTY. *Joa her garden was extensive and beautiful, and the old lady had determined to ask every one A^ith whom she was acquainted. People in Olton Priors accej^ted the fact that Miss Priscilla beloni^ed to all sets alike ; and as the hostess had said to Barker, *' in a garden there was plenty of room for people to steer clear of those whom they did not wish to know." The Olton Priors band had oftered their services to Miss Priscilla, and the offer had been graciously accepted. It was formed mostly of musicians who had been Miss Priscilla s pupils in the Sunday-school, and entirely of men who desired to do Miss Priscilla honour. Beer had been at work on the garden morning, noon, and dusk. The flowers were in full bloom. The roses had never been seen in such perfection. The tortoise-shell Tom had a new blue riband round his neck, 256 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. and even the donkeys had been extra groomed for the benefit of those who might ask to see them. There were tables laid out under the trees with refreshments from the well-known con- fectioner's shop down by the market-cross kept by Mrs. Khodes ; for Miss Priscilla encouraged the trade of the country town by every means in her power, and would have scorned to send to Shalemouth or Inchester for anything whatever. Mrs. Khodes's shop was famous for two things, a thin crisp sort of gingerbreaS known as '' Rhodes's parliament," and Rhodes's po- • tato-cakes. No one ever dreamed of visiting Olton Priors without paying a visit to Mrs. Rhodes to purchase parliament and potato- cakes. For Miss Priscilla's garden-party Mrs. Rhodes had provided both. Miss Priscilla's list of invitations had in- creased steadily day by day since Barker had MISS PEISCILLAS GARDEN-PARTY. 2:)7 said there must be a garden-party. People had ahnost asked to conie. Miss Priscilla was so very popular. There were the Lanes from Pegwell and the Fullers from Queen's Shaleton, and the Careys of Shalebourne Manor, and the Leys of Moreton-Basset, all people of importance who held their heads very high in Sandshire, and who had been asked purposely to meet Mr. Trevor and Lady Adela. A leader of society had been much wanted in that part of Sandshire in which Olton Priors was situated, and ijie advent of a daughter of the Duke of Wessex had been hailed with delight. For Lady Margate had been barely tolerated, and had never succeeded in making good her footing in county society. The Trevors were of course the centre of all interest ; young men who never went to garden-parties had been induced to come to VOL. I. 17 258 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. this one, to be introduced to Lady Adela and her daughter Diana. The Howards had been asked, but the old people had declined, and had sent their daughters under the escort of Mrs. Brough- ton, the attorney's wife. There had been much demur to asking the Hunts because of the unpleasantness about the paper-mills with Lord Margate, but at last Miss Priscilla had asked the Hunts, and the Hunts had brought Boodle, the Shalemouth station-master with them, whose holiday was not yet over. Barker said it was just what might have been expected of such vulgar people as ^'them Hunts." Barker was very angry at the admittance of Boodle at the garden-party, but Barker was not so angry as Mrs. Broom. Miss Priscilla was considered eccentric. People were always liable to meet other people whom they turned up their noses at, if they went to the Manor MISS PRISCILLA's GAR13EN^-PARTY. 259 House ; but they did go all the same, for Miss Priscilla was a privileged person. Then there was Dr. Grain, who came early in a frilled shirt that made him look like a pouter pigeon, and two diamond pins con- nected by a gold chain stuck into the frill ; und Mr. Pericles Bone, who came very late in a frock-coat and a chimney-pot hat, and who apologised profusely for only being able to '^look in for a moment" between his professional visits. No one believed Mr. Pone, not even Miss Priscilla, but this sort of professional lying was part of the dapper young surgeon's business, and went for about as much as his frequent whiskings out of church on a Sunday morning. Mr. Golightly, the Eector, was there, and Mr. Golightly's wife and daughters. The Pector was an altogether colourless man, not only in person but in doctrine also. Perhaps there was no parish in the diocese of Inchester 17—2 260 COUNTY VEESUS COUNTER. in which religious party spirit ran so high as^ it did in Olton Priors ; and if the bishop's choice of Mr. GoHghtly had been founded on his knowledge of this fact, then the bishop might be complimented on his sagacity. The Rector called himself a '' moderate but sound man." He had no particular gifts of any sort, certainly none for preaching or teaching or parishing. He was a man with no hobbies^ no vices, and as far as people could judge, no pursuits. Any profoundness of which he might be accused was simply that of being profoundly mediocre, uninteresting, and dull. His curate, however, the Reverend Celes- tine Channing, was always in hot water with half the parish. This was enough to keep the religious pulse of Olton Priors going at a brisk rate. A country town stagnates with- out religious differences. As long as Mr. Channing was in Olton Priors, the place ran ^nSS PRISCILLAS GARDEX-PARTY. 2G1 no risk of stagnation. The Rector knew this, and was mildly grateful to his curate for letting himself be made the parish scapegoat. The Rector affected a costume as scrupulously moderate as his views. His white tie alone proclaimed his caUing, though no one could say that his attire was unclerical. Mr. Channing, on the contrary, appeared at the Manor House in his cassock and a very broad hat, such as Mr. Howard affirmed was only worn by Roman priests. The hat had a cord and tassels, which were particularly offensive to persons of Mr. Howard's per- suasion. There were a great many people altogether at Miss Trevor's garden-party. Most of them knew most others by sight, but very few had ever seen the Trevors. The latter had come early at Miss Priscilla's express desire, so had the Margates and Captain Norman. When the Rosses arrived, Captain 262 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. Norinaii was bending over Diana in the act of offering her a rose. The rose was accepted, of course, but she held it in her hand and did not seem incHned to wear it in her dress. Victor Ross, however, would have known that rose among a thousand. He gave Diana, and the gentleman standing by her, a very wide berth — so wide that Diana was hurt — and she looked up into Captain Nor- man's face with a beaming smile much more often than she would have done, had not Victor been watching. Then Diana had pointed out Victor to Captain Norman as the man who had checked the horses at the wharf, and Norman had said that he and Koss had been at Kugby together, and that he wished to be reintroduced. Diana walked up to where Victor was stand- ing, and introduced Captain Norman to him. '^ I think we must have been at school together," said Norman pleasantly. MISS PPvISCILLA's gardex-party. 263 Victor stared ; but presently his memory was quickened, and Diana left the two young men to talk over Rugby days. Victor had heard of Captain Norman as a swaggering cavahy man, with better looks than brains, and when he had first seen him hanging over Diana Trevor he had been ready to endorse the opinion that he had heard expressed ; but ten minutes' conversation sufficed to dispel his prejudice. Victor was rather rough and very reserved, but he was not proof against the bright cordial manner of such a man as Charlie Norman. His rough- ness soon wore off and his reserve thawed at Norman's unaffected heartiness. '' I hear your father and sister are here ; will you not introduce me to them ?" said Norman. Victor could not find his father, but Eva was close by. He took Captain Norman up to her and introduced him as an old school- 264 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. fellow. Then he went off to talk to Diana ; but Planty Broom was trying to make himself agreeable to her, and Victor again lost his opportunity. Whatever the Brooms had thought of Diana's note to Plantagenet, they took no notice of it. Mrs. Broom had greeted Lady Adela as though they had been friends from girlhood, Mr. Broom had button-holed Mr. Trevor the instant he had perceived him, and Planty had asked Diana after the dog, and made it a peg to hang conversation on. Diana had coloured at first and had felt inclined to resent any allusion to Fido ; but Planty had made up his mind to be agree- able, and he flattered himself he could hardly fail. ' Diana soon thawed ; the young man was a sportsman, and he had the gift of the gab, besides which he had brains of a sort and knew how to use them. Diana confessed to her mother, after the garden-party, that MISS priscilla's garden-party. 265 she thought she had misjudged the young manu Any reaction of feehng with a girl of Diana's temperament was sure to be excessive. When once she had owned to having misjudged the man, she took his part with reckless impetuosity on all occasions, and in her manner towards Planty himself, did her utmost to remove the unfavourable impression she beUeved he must have enter- tained of her. Victor Ross had entirely recovered. His bright colour had returned, and his eyes were brilliant with health. But though Miss Priscilla was happy in seeing him so well and like his old self in the matter of bodily vigour, yet she noticed a great change in the young fellow's manner, and she could «ee that his mind was far from being at peace. Miss Priscilla was as proud of Victor and Eva as if they had been her own chil- dren, and the change in Victor pained her. 266 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. She thought she guessed what had caused the change, and she blamed herself for what after all she could not have helped. Every one was asking the old lady who Eva was. It was the first time she had appeared at any large gathering in the neighbourhood^ and hers was a beauty that was admired by men and women alike. The Lanes knew her by sight, because Black Rock was close to Pegwell, but they had not been struck by her beauty before as they were to-day, and they were not altogether pleased that they should have had to meet the timber-mer- chant's daughter at Manor House. The Kosses, as has been said before,, were not popular in Olton Priors. Tom Ross had a bluff outspoken way which people much disliked. He was independent too, and would not be tied down by any con- ventionalities. He was never uncivil exactly,, but he was not friendly. His position was. MISS peiscilla's garden-party. 267 equivocal, and therefore he preferred to know no one. The Olton Priors folk thought him surly and ill-conditioned, and included Victor in their condemnation. Besides, people were jealous of them both. It was known that the Rosses were well off. Rimiours had reached Olton Priors from Canada, that Poss's property had been wanted for building purposes, and consequently had become of immense value, and the young men were rather sick of hearing about Victor's strength and good looks from eveiy woman for ten miles round. " People who want our acquaintance must seek us," Tom Poss had once said to a neighbour in accounting for his solitary Ufe, and the remark had been repeated in a manner that made it appear that the Posses meant to give themselves airs. Lord and Lady Margate knew the Posses by sight, but that was all. So did the 268 COUNTY VEESUS COUNTER. Brooms, and the Howards, and the Hunts ; but there was not a touch of friendship between any of them and the people at Black Rock. The only man in Olton Priors that could really be called a friend of Victor's was young George Warre, the son of the landlord of the Trevor Arms. John Warre, the landlord himself, had been Tom Ross's chum in very old days, and their mothers had been cousins, both farmers' daughters in the neighbourhood. George Warre had been at a good school, the grammar school of Inchester, and had in some measure picked up the* ways and manners of a gentleman. He was a wild harum-scarum sort of fellow, very square and thick-set, with a bull-neck and a pair of merry dark eyes. He hung about the Trevor Arms, of which he would be landlord some day when the old man retired, but he was of a restless turn, and was often away in London for months to- MISS peiscilla's garden-party. 269- gether, presumably on business, but probably not business that he would have cared to talk about in Olton Priors. He was rather rough and coarse in speech as in appearance, his features were almost ugly, but their ugli- ness was of the attractive kind ; for he wa& vigorous, healthful, and muscular. There was a certain jaunty swagger about George Warre which became him, but which pre- vented his looking a gentleman at the same time. Such as he was, however, he was Victor Ross's best friend in Olton Priors, and Victor was glad that he was to return to- the Trevor Arms the following week. Miss Priscilla's garden-party was a signal for eveiy one in the neighbourhood to com- mence their summer junketings. Picnics were proposed, and much was said about .Lord Margate's new steam launch, and the archery fetes at Buncombe every month. Most people gave Lady Adela to understand '270 COUNTY VERSUS COUNTER. that they regarded her henceforth as a leader of society, and that they should do them- selves the honour of calling in the course of rthe following week. The donkeys had many visitors that after- noon, and suffered for days after from a surfeit of carrots; while the tortoise-shell Tom got so tired of being caressed, that he took himself off to old Mr. Howard's to see a feline friend, and was found there by Camilla on her return to Arundel Lodge. END OF VOL. I. SILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, SURREY. ;, UNIVERSITY OF ILUNOI9-URBANA iliiillliii 3 0112 052938948 s ^r ^>, -*' J