The Unknown Ajax

Chapter 5

Breakfast at Darracott Place was not served until eleven o’clock, early risers being obliged to sustain nature until that hour on a cup of chocolate and a slice of bread-and-butter, brought to their bedchambers. The custom was not an unusual one; in many country houses of ton, noon was the appointed hour for the first meal of the day; but to a soldier, accustomed to much earlier hours, it was both strange and unacceptable. Major Darracott, awaking betimes from a night of untroubled repose, thrust back the curtains that shrouded the four-poster in which he lay, and pulled his watch from under the pillows. The tidings it conveyed were unwelcome enough to make him utter a despairing groan, and sink back, resolutely closing his eyes in an attempt to recapture sleep. After spending half-an-hour in this barren endeavour, he abandoned it, linked his hands under his head, and lay for a time with his eyes fixed abstractedly on the line of light seeping through the join of the curtains drawn across the windows, and his mind roving over the events of the previous evening. What he thought of them no spy could have guessed, for even in solitude his countenance afforded no clue to whatever thoughts might be revolving behind the blankness in his eyes. There was something rather bovine about its immobility: Vincent had already told his grandfather that he lived in momentary expectation of seeing his ox-like cousin chew the cud.

It had been a daunting evening, judging by any standards. When the gentlemen had risen from the dining-table, Vincent had challenged Richmond to a game of billiards, and Richmond, instantly accepting the challenge, had gone off with him, his quick flush betraying his gratification. The rest of the male company had gone upstairs to join the ladies in the long drawing-room, his lordship having apparently decided that even an evening spent amongst females was preferable to one spent alone, or closeted with his son in the library. Only two females were discovered in the drawing-room. Mrs. Darracott, inviting Hugo to a chair beside her own, explained, a little nervously, that Anthea had the headache, and had gone to bed. It seemed for an instant as though my lord would have uttered some blistering censure, but although his brow was black he refrained, with what was plainly an effort, from making any comment. Seating himself in a wing-chair, he fell into conversation with his son, while Lady Aurelia, who had abandoned her tatting for some tapestry-work, handed Claud a tangle of coloured wools, and desired him, with much the air of one providing a child with a simple puzzle, to unravel the various strands. He was perfectly ready to oblige her, and even, having subjected her work to a critical scrutiny, to offer her some very good advice on the accomplishment of the design.

Mrs. Darracott, meanwhile, was doing what lay within her power to make Hugo feel at home, considerably hampered by the knowledge that his lordship, lending only half an ear to Matthew, was listening to all that was said.

What my lord had learned by this means had not been very much, but one piece of information he had gleaned which had put him into a better temper: Hugo seemed to have no maternal relations living—or, at all events, none of whom he took account. His grandfather, he told Mrs. Darracott, in reply to her sympathetic question, had been dead for several years; he supposed, rather vaguely, that there were those who could call cousins with him, but the connection must of necessity be remote. No, he didn’t think he had ever met them; the only member of his mother’s family whom he remembered was Great-aunt Susan, who had been used to live with them when he was a child. She had been a spinster, but he thought Grandfather had had other sisters.

Lord Darracott was so much cheered by this that he had presently asked Hugo if he played chess. Upon Hugo’s replying doubtfully that he knew what the moves were but hadn’t played since he was a boy, he had said bluntly: “You couldn’t give me a game, then. What can you play? Piquet? Backgammon?”

“Ay, or whist,” offered Hugo.

“Play whist, do you?” said his lordship. “Very well, I’ll try you in a rubber or two. Aurelia, you won’t object to making up a table? Ring the bell, Hugh!”

The Major, with an uneasy apprehension that the form of whist played by a number of generally impecunious young officers belonging to a regiment that boasted very few bucks and blades of Society was likely to fall considerably short of his lordship’s standard, tried to draw back from the engagement; but his suggestion that he should watch, while Mrs. Darracott, or Claud, took his place, found no favour at all. His lordship said that Mrs. Darracott was fit for nothing but casino, and that he would be damned if he played with Claud, who had no head for cards, or, indeed, anything else. So Hugo had been obliged to take his seat at the card-table, with his grandfather for partner. They played only for chicken-stakes, and it was not long before Hugo found that his apprehension had been well-grounded. He was forced to endure many sharp scolds for stupidity; and later, when the billiard-players came into the drawing-room, the severe imposition of having his hand overlooked by Vincent. He seized the earliest opportunity of relinquishing his seat to Vincent. No opposition had been raised, my lord merely saying “Well, you’re no card-player!” and recommending him to watch his cousin’s play. He had preferred, however, to slip away when my lord’s attention was devoted to the play of a difficult hand, and to enjoy the solace of one of his cigars on the terrace. Here he had presently been joined by Richmond. “I thought you had come out to blow a cloud!” Richmond had said.

“Now, if you’re framing to squeak beef on me—!” he had responded.

Richmond had chuckled. “You’d be in the suds, cousin! So would I be, if you were to squeak beef on me! Grandpapa thinks I’ve gone to bed. He wouldn’t like it above half if he knew—That is, he don’t want me to ask you about the war in the Peninsula, or—But never mind that! I wanted to tell you—you might not know—he—he doesn’t understand!”He had raised his handsome young face, pallid in the moonlight, and had blurted out: “About the Light Division, I mean! He—he only thinks of the Guards, and the Cavalry! He may say—oh, I don’t know, but pray don’t take it amiss!”

“Nay,” Hugo had said reassuringly. “I won’t take it amiss! Why should I? I’ve nothing to say against the Gentlemen’s Sons, or the Cavalry either—some of ’em!”

“No. Well, I wanted just to warn you!” Richmond had confided. “He’s quite antiquated, you know, and, of course, he does ride devilish rusty—though not with me, so perhaps I ought not to say it, only—”

“There’s no need for you to be fatched, lad: my Grandfather Bray was just such a cobby old fellow!”

“Oh!” Richmond had sounded rather taken aback. “Was he? I mean—Yes, I see! But there’s Vincent, too, and—” He paused, knitting his brows. “I don’t know why he was in such a bad skin tonight, but in general he—he is a bang-up fellow, you know! What they call Top-of-the-Trees! A regular out-and-outer! You should see him with a four-in-hand!”

“Happen I will.”

“Yes, of course. Do you drive yourself, cousin?”

“Nay, I’m no Nonesuch!”

Richmond had been disappointed, but he had said quickly: “No, you haven’t had the opportunity—” He had broken off short, and although no colour could live in the moonlight, Hugo had known that a vivid flush had flooded his cheeks. He had stammered: “I don’t mean—I meant only that you have been doing other things! Things m-more worth the doing! I wish you will tell me, if it isn’t a dead bore, about your campaigns!”

Yes, Hugo thought, reviewing that interlude, a nice lad, young Richmond; but what such an ardent colt was doing hobbled at Darracott Place was a puzzle. If ever a lad was mad after a pair of colours! He had said that his grandfather had set his face against the granting of this desire, but he didn’t look to be the sort of lad to submit docilely to the decree of even so absolute an autocrat as old Darracott. If my lord didn’t take care, thought Hugo, casting off the bedclothes, and swinging his feet to the ground, he would have the lad chin-deep in mischief.

Dismissing Richmond from his mind, he strode to the window, and pulled back the curtains, and stood for a minute or two, leaning his hands on the sill, and looking out. The sprawling house was built on a slight elevation, in parkland which stretched for a considerable distance to the south and east, but merged rapidly into thick woods on the northern and western fronts. Below Hugo’s window, a part of the gardens, which appeared to be extensive though not in very trim order, lay between the house and the park; and the Military Canal and, beyond it, the Weiland Marsh stretched into a distance still shrouded in morning mist The day was fresh but fair; it beckoned compellingly; and within a very short space of time Hugo, fortified by a thick ham sandwich and a pint of Kentish ale, supplied to him by a pleasantly fluttered kitchenmaid, had set out for an exploratory ramble round the park.

He returned by way of the stables, which were situated to the west of the house. They had been built to accommodate many more horses than now stood in the stalls, and were ranged round several cobbled yards. Only two of these seemed to be in use; in the others weeds were pushing up between the cobbles, and rows of shut doors, the paint on them blistered and cracked with age, lent a melancholy air of decay to the scene.

The Major found his groom, a middle-aged Yorkshireman of stocky build and dour countenance, severely repelling the mischievous advances of a plump damsel in a print frock and a mob cap. To judge by the grin on the face of one of the stableboys, who had paused, bucket in hand, to listen to her sallies, she was full of liveliness and wit; but when she saw Hugo coming across the yard she fell into a twitter of embarrassment, dropped a hasty curtsy, and ran away.

“Set up a flirt already, have you?” remarked Hugo. “I’m surprised at you, John Joseph, at your time of life!”

“That giglet!” snorted his servitor. “I’ bahn to take t’gray to the stithy, Mester Hugo: he’s got a shoe loose, like I told you.”

“How’s Rufus?”

“Champion!”

“Good! I’ll take a look at him. All well with you, John Joseph?”

“I’m suited,” responded John Joseph stolidly. He cast an upward sidelong glance at his master’s face, and added in a rougher tone: “Tha knows we mun be suited, Mester Hugo, choose how!”

The blue eyes gave nothing away, but there was a hint of mulishness about the Major’s firm lips. “Maybe! We’ll see!”

“Tha’s quality-make, like t’gaffer used to say,” urged John Joseph. “Nay then, sir—! If tha’s bahn to be a lord, think on—”

“I am thinking,” Hugo answered. He smiled. “Hold thy gab, John Joseph!”

“Mester Hugo! If t’gaffer could hear thee—!”

“I’d get a bang on the lug. But—”

“Sneck up!” commanded his henchman. “Here comes his lordship, and Mester Richmond! I mun fettle t’tits.”

With these words he withdrew into the stable, just as Lord Darracott and Richmond, who had been out at exercise, dismounted.

“Ha! Glad to see you’re up and about!” said his lordship. “I’ve no patience with young fellows who lie abed till all hours. Another morning you may come out with me: no use suggesting it to you last night: you’ll need to rest your horses. I’ll take a look at ’em,”

“Ay, sir, do! They’re neither of them the equal of this fellow,” said Hugo, patting the neck of Richmond’s colt, “but the bay’s a prime fencer, and strong in work. He has need to be!”

“H’m! Pity you’re so big!” commented his lordship. “What do you ride? Seventeen stone?”

“All of that,” admitted Hugo. “Eh, lad, you’ve got a proper high-bred ’un here!”

“Do you like him?” Richmond asked eagerly. “He’s young—pretty green still, but a perfect mover! I broke him myself.”

Lord Darracott, leaving Richmond to show off his treasure, went into the stable, and was soon heard putting curt questions to John Joseph. It seemed doubtful that he would find John Joseph’s answers intelligible, but he apparently understood enough to satisfy him, for when he presently emerged he rather surprisingly told Hugo that he had a good man there, who knew his work. He bestowed moderate praise on Rufus, the big bay, but dismissed the Andalusian with the loose shoe as a clumsy-looking brute, high in flesh. Richmond having gone off to confer with his groom, his lordship commanded Hugo to accompany him back to the house. “I’ve a good deal to say to you,” he informed him. “I’ll see you in the library after breakfast.”

Few members of his family would have sat down to breakfast with much appetite after such a pronouncement as this, but although a slightly wary expression came into Hugo’s eyes his appetite remained unimpaired, and he was soon consuming an extremely hearty meal. The fact that his cousin Anthea had chosen to seat herself on the opposite side of the table troubled him not at all. Glancing dispassionately at her, he was able to verify his first impression that she was a pretty girl, with remarkably fine eyes, and a good deal of countenance. It seemed a pity that she should be so cold and inanimate when a little vivacity would have done so much to improve her.

Neither Vincent nor Claud was an early riser, and each incurred censure for walking into the breakfast parlour when the meal was nearly over. Vincent, never in his sunniest mood before breakfast, furiously resented the scold he received, but betrayed this only by his thinned lips and a certain glitter in his eyes. Claud, on the other hand, was unwise enough to excuse himself. Owing to the stupidity of his man, the carelessness of the laundress, and the inexplicable whims of Fate, which decreed that although one might sometimes achieve a desired result at the first attempt, at others success would elude one until one was exhausted, it had taken him three quarters of an hour to tie his neckcloth. The style he had chosen was the Mailcoach, and as it was as bulky as it was wide, he bore all the appearance of having bound a compress round a sore throat, as his brother took care to inform him.

“Jack-at-warts!” said his lordship bitterly.

Everyone waited for him to develop this theme, but he said no more, merely staring fixedly at Claud under such lowering brows that that unfortunate exquisite became so much discomposed that he took an unwary gulp of tea and scalded his mouth,

“I have it!” suddenly announced his lordship, grimly triumphant. “I’ll set you to work!”

“Eh?” ejaculated Claud, alarmed.

“You are a Bartholomew baby, a park-saunterer, a good-for-nothing Jack Straw!” said his fond grandfather.

“Well, I shouldn’t put it like that myself, sir,” said Claud, “but I daresay you’re right. Well, what I mean is, no use setting me to work: I couldn’t!”

“A smock-faced wag-feather!” pursued my lord inexorably. “Your only talent is for alamodality!”

“Well, there you are, sir!” Claud pointed out.

“A certain sort of something!” mocked Vincent.

“That’s what I’ll turn to good account!” said his lordship. “You can teach Hugh how to pass himself off with credit! Give him a new touch! Rid him of that damned brogue! You don’t know much, but you’ve moved in the first circles all your life, and you do know the established mode!”

“Father! Really—!” Matthew exclaimed.

“Cousin Hugo doesn’t need any touch that Claud could give him!” declared Richmond, scarlet-faced.

Hugo, who had continued throughout this embarrassing dialogue to eat his way through several slices of cold beef, looked up from his plate to smile amiably, and to say, with a marked Yorkshire drawl: “Nay, I’d be fain to learn how to support the character of a gentleman. I’ve a fancy to be up to the knocker, and I’ll be well-suited to be put in the way of it. And I should think,” he added handsomely, “that our Claud could teach me better nor most.”

“Exactly so!” said Vincent. “An assinego may tutor thee!”

“To support the character of a gentleman!” exclaimed Anthea, unexpectedly entering the lists. “In this house, cousin, unless you will be content with my brother, you will search in vain for a model!”

“You keep your tongue, miss!” said his lordship, without any particular animosity.

“Anthea, pray—!” whispered Mrs. Darracott.

“Oh, have you changed your mind?” asked Vincent, levelling his quizzing-glass at Anthea. A provocative smile curled his lip; he said silkily: “Shall the elephant Ajax carry it thus, my sweet life?”

Her eyes blazed, and Hugo, considerably surprised, intervened, saying in his deep, slow voice: “Nay then! Don’t fratch over me! I don’t know what I’m to carry, but I’m agreeable to be called an elephant: it won’t be for the first time! They call me Gog Darracott in the regiment, but when I was a lad it was more often that great lump! There’s no need for any fuss and clart on my account; I’ve a broad back.”

“It must at all events be acknowledged that you have an amiable temper,” said Matthew, pushing back his chair. “You will excuse me, Elvira, if you please! I must go up to see how her ladyship does. She passed an indifferent night, and has the headache this morning.”

Mrs. Darracott replied suitably, and Matthew left the room. He was shortly followed by Lord Darracott, who went away, commanding Hugo not to keep him waiting. Hugh, who had just received his third cup of tea from Mrs. Darracott, said that he would follow him when he had finished his breakfast, a reply which struck Claud as being so foolhardy that he was moved to utter an earnest warning. “Better go at once!” he said. “No sense in putting him in a bad skin, coz! Very likely to regret it!”

“Nay, what could he do to me?” said Hugo, dropping sugar into his cup.

“That you will discover,” said Vincent dryly. “You will also discover the pains and penalties that attach to the position of heir.”

“Happen I’ve discovered a few already,” drawled Hugo.

Claud coughed delicately. “Rather fancy you mean perhaps, coz!”

“Ay, so I do!” agreed Hugo. “I’m much obliged to you.”

“The spectacle of Claud entering upon his new duties, though not unamusing, is not one which I can support at this hour of the day,” said Vincent. “Do you mind postponing any further tuition until I have withdrawn from the room?”

“Ah!” retorted Claud, with an odious smirk. “You’re piqued because m’grandfather didn’t ask you to hint Hugh into the proper mode!”

This quite failed to ruffle Vincent. “He did,” he answered. “I was persuaded, however, that it would prove to be a task beyond my poor power, and declined the office.” He saw that, while his target remained unmoved, Richmond was looking at him with a troubled frown between his eyes. He smiled slightly at the boy, and said, as he rose from the table: “What I am going to do is to teach Richmond how to point his leaders.”

Richmond had been shocked by Vincent’s conduct, but this was an invitation not to be resisted. His brow cleared; he jumped up, exclaiming: “No! Do you mean it? You’re not hoaxing me, are you?”

“No, but perhaps I should have said I mean to try to teach you.”

“Brute!” Richmond said, laughing. He thought he saw how to turn this cut to good account, and said ingenuously: “Vincent is always out of reason cross before breakfast, Cousin Hugo! Snaps all our noses off!”

“Well, if you ask me,” said Claud, as soon as the door was shut again, “he’s got a devilish nasty tongue in his head any hour of the day! Takes after the old gentleman.” He looked at his large cousin, and shook his head. “You may think it’s a fine thing to be the heir: got a strong notion m’father liked it pretty well, too. All I can say is, I’m dashed glad I’m not. Y’know, coz, if you’ve finished your tea, I’d as lief you went off to see what m’grandfather wants. There’s no saying but what he may blame me for it if you keep him waiting.”

Thus adjured, Hugh went in search of Lord Darracott, and found him (after peeping into three empty saloons) seated at his desk in the library. There was a pen in his hand, but the ink had dried on it, and he was staring absently out of the bay window. He turned his head when he heard the door open, and said: “Oh, so here you are! Shut the door, and come over here! You can take that chair, if it will bear you!”

It cracked, but gave no sign of immediate collapse under Hugo’s weight, so he disposed himself comfortably in it, crossed one booted leg over the other, and awaited his grandfather’s pleasure with every outward semblance of placidity.

For several moments his lordship said nothing; but sat looking at him morosely. “You don’t favour your father!” he said at last.

“No,” agreed the Major.

“Well, I daresay you’re none the worse for that! You are his son: there’s no doubt about it!” He put down his pen, and pushed aside the papers on his desk, something in the gesture seeming to indicate that with them he was pushing aside his memories. “Got to make the best of it!” he said. “When I’m booked, you’ll step into my shoes. I don’t mean to wrap the matter up in clean linen, and I’ll tell you to your head that that’s not what I wanted, or ever dreamed would come to pass!”

“No,” said the Major again, sympathetically. “It’s been a facer to the both of us.”

Lord Darracott stared at him. “A facer for me, but a honey-fall for you, young man!”

The Major preserved a stolid silence.

“And don’t tell me you’d as lief not step into your uncle’s shoes!” said Lord Darracott. “You’ll find me a hard man to bridge, so cut no wheedles for my edification!” He paused, but the Major still had nothing to say. His lordship gave a short laugh. “If you thought you’d turn me up sweet by writing that flim-flam to Lissett you mistook your man! I detest maw-worms, and that’s what you sounded like to me! I do you the justice to say you haven’t the look of a maw-worm, so maybe it was your notion of civility. Let me have no more of it!” He waited again for any answer the Major might like to make, but, getting none, snapped: “Well, have you a tongue in your head?”

“I have,” responded Hugo, “but I was never one to give my head for washing.”

“You’re not such a fool as you look,” commented his lordship. “Whether you’ve enough sense to learn what every other Darracott has known from the cradle we shall see. That’s why I sent for you.”

“It’s why I came, think on,” said Hugo reflectively. “My father being killed almost before I was out of long coats, there was no one to tell me anything about my family, and barring I’d a lord for grandfather I didn’t know anything.”

“You’re blaming me, are you? Very well! If I had known that there would ever have been the smallest need for you to know anything about me, or mine, I should have sent for you when your father died, and had you reared under my eye.”

“Happen my mother would have had something to say to that,” remarked Hugo.

“There’s nothing to be gained by discussing the matter now. When your father married against my wish he cut himself off from his family. I don’t scruple to tell you, for you must be well aware of it, that in marrying a weaver’s daughter—however virtuous she may have been!—he did what he knew must ruin him with me!”

“Ay, they were pluck to the backbone, the pair of ’em,” nodded Hugo. “What with you on the one hand, and Granddad on t’other, they must have had good bottom, seemingly.” He smiled affably upon his lordship. “I never heard that they regretted it, though Granddad always held to it that no good would come of the match. Like to like and Nan to Nicholas was his motto.”

“Are you telling me, sir, that the fellow objected to his daughter’s marrying my son?” demanded Lord Darracott.

“Oh! he wasn’t at all suited with it!” replied Hugo. “Let alone my father was Quality-make, he was too much of a care-for-nobody for Granddad: caper-witted, he called him. Shutful with his brass, too, which used to put Granddad, by what I’m told, into a rare passion. But Granddad’s bark was worse than his bite, and he came round to the marriage in the end. It’s a pity you never met him: you’d have agreed together better nor you think.”

Lord Darracott, almost stunned, sought in vain for words with which to dispel this illusion. Before he could find them, Hugo had added thoughtfully: “You put me in mind of him now-and-now, particularly when you start ringing a peal over someone. However, you didn’t send for me to talk about Granddad, so likely I’m wasting your time, sir.”

“I wish to hear nothing about your granddad, as you call him, or your mother, or the life you led when you were a boy!” declared his lordship, his face still alarmingly suffused with colour. “Understand me, that period is never to be mentioned! I recommend you to put it out of your mind! It shouldn’t be difficult; you’ve been a serving officer for the past ten years, and must have other things to talk of. I collect that there are no longer any ties binding you to Yorkshire, and that circumstance I cannot but regard as fortunate. I’ll be plain with you: since I can’t keep you from succeeding me I mean to see you licked into shape before I stick my spoon in the wall.”

“Nay, we can’t tell but what I’ll break my neck over a rasper, or go off in the smallpox,” interposed Hugo, in a heartening tone.

“Where the devil did you learn to hunt?” exclaimed his lordship.

“In Portugal.”

“Oh!” His lordship sat for a minute or two digesting this. “Well, that’s more than I hoped for!” he said presently. “You’ll be able to hunt from here: it’s humbug country, but you’ll see plenty of sport. I used to hunt in the shires, but I’m getting too old for it now. Sold my lodge in Leicestershire some years ago. Just as well I did! I should have had that nick-or-nothing boy of mine coming to grief over those fences, sure as a gun!”

“I’ve a fancy to hunt in the shires myself,” confessed Hugo. “In fact—”

“Oh, you have, have you? Then you’d best rid yourself of it!” interrupted his lordship sardonically. “Behave yourself, and I’ll make you a respectable allowance, but it won’t run to the Quorn or the Pytchley, so don’t think it!”

“Nay, I wasn’t thinking it!” replied Hugo, looking a little startled. “Nor of your making me an allowance neither, sir. I’m much obliged to you, but I don’t want that: I’ve plenty of brass.”

Lord Darracott was amused. “Ay, your pockets are well-lined because you’ve just had the prize-money for the Peninsula and Waterloo paid to you. I know all about that, and no doubt it seems a fortune to you. You’ll change your ideas a little when you’ve learnt the ways of my world.”

“My grandfather left me some brass too,” said Hugo diffidently.

“What you choose to do with your grandfather’s savings is no concern of mine: spend them as you wish! For your support, you’ll look to me—and you’ll be glad enough to do so before you’re much older! You are going to live in a different style to any you’ve been accustomed to, and you wouldn’t find yourself able to strike a balance on a weaver’s savings, however thrifty he may have been. Let me hear no more on that subject!”

“No,” said Hugo meekly.

“Well, that brings me to what I have to say to you,” said his lordship. “You’re my heir, and you’ve all to learn, and I choose that you shall learn it under my roof. For the present you’ll remain here—at all events until you’ve lost that damned north-country accent! Later I’ll let your uncle introduce you into Society, but the time for that’s not yet. This is your home, and here you’ll stay. Which reminds me that you must sell out, if you haven’t already done so.”

“I have,” said Hugo.

The craggy brows drew together. “Taking a lot for granted, weren’t you?”

“Well,” Hugo drawled, “there was a lot I could take for granted, sir.”

“What if I hadn’t chosen to acknowledge you?”

“Nay, I hadn’t thought of that,” confessed Hugo.

“Don’t be too pot-sure!” said his lordship, by no means pleased. “I could still send you packing! And make no mistake about it: if I find you intolerable I’ll do it!”

A flicker of relief shone for an instant in the Major’s eyes, but he said nothing.

“However, you’re better than I expected,” said his lordship, mollified by this docility. “I daresay something can be made of you. Watch your cousins, and take your tone from them! I don’t mean Claud—though no one would ever mistake him for other than a gentleman, mooncalf though he is!—but the other three. Vincent’s an idle, extravagant dog, but his ton is excellent—what they call nowadays top-of-the-trees! You may take him for your model—and I’ll see to it you don’t copy his extravagance! No use looking to him to set you right when you make mistakes, however: he won’t do it, because he’s as sulky as a bear over the whole business. I could force him to take you in hand, but I shan’t. I don’t want the pair of you coming to cuffs. That’s why I’ve told Claud to give you a new touch. Between ’em, he and Anthea can teach you pretty well all you need to know. She was born and bred here, knows all the ways of the place, all our history, every inch of my land! Not married, are you?”

“Married!” ejaculated Hugo, taken-aback. “Lord, no, sir!”

“No, I didn’t think you could be,” said his lordship. “I recommend you get on terms with your cousin Anthea. She doesn’t want for sense, and she’s a spirited, lively girl, and would make you an excellent wife, if she took a fancy to you. I shall say no more on that head at present, however. Time enough to be looking to the future when you’re better acquainted. What you can do at the moment is to go over the house with her: get her to tell you about the family! Ring the bell!”

The Major rose, and obeyed this peremptory behest. He also mopped his brow.

“I’m going to send for her,” said his lordship. “She can take you up to the picture-gallery for a start.”

The Major, showing alarm for the first time, tried to protest, but was cut short. “Ay, I know that throws you into a stew! You haven’t been the way of doing the pretty, and you’re as shy as be-damned: you needn’t tell me! You’ll have to get the better of that, and you may as well begin at once. Chollacombe, desire Miss Darracott to come to me here immediately!”

The Major, attempting no further remonstrance, ran a finger inside a neckcloth grown suddenly too tight, and awaited in considerable trepidation the arrival of his cousin Anthea.