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Belton, in speaking of the cottage, had told Colonel Askerton that Miss Amedroz would be his future landlord, and had then gone on to explain that it was his, Belton's, intention to destroy the entail, and allow the property to descend from the father to the daughter.
Lady Aylmer had almost made him believe that Clara would be the suppliant, but now he was the suppliant himself. In his anxiety to keep her he was willing even to pass over her terrible iniquity in regard to Mrs Askerton that great sin which had led to all these troubles.
'She says she'll come up to you if you'll let her, said the servant. But Clara declined this proposition, and in a few minutes went down to the small parlour in which she had lately lived, and where she found her visitor. 'My poor dear, this has been very sudden, said Mrs Askerton. 'Very sudden very sudden. And yet, now that he has gone, I know that I expected it.
I could swear to the sound of his foot. Doesn't he step as though he were Belton of Belton, and conscious that everything belonged to him? Then there was a pause. 'He has been shown in to Colonel Askerton. What on earth could he want with him? 'He has called to tell him something about the cottage, said Clara, endeavouring to speak as though she were calm through it all. 'Cottage! Fiddlestick!
And she had been ruffled a second time by certain observations which Mrs Askerton made to her respecting her cousin or rather by little words which were dropped on various occasions. It was very clear that Mrs Askerton did not like Mr Belton, and that she wished to prejudice Clara against him.
Remember how much of all this I must of necessity have to go through with poor papa. 'Ah, yes; I can believe that. 'And he is so far from well. Of course you have not seen him since I have been gone. 'No; we never see him unless he comes up to the gate there. Then there was another pause for a moment. And what about Captain Aylmer? asked Mrs Askerton. 'Well what about him?
He'll be delighted, I'm sure, to see you if you are here some time in September. But you, coming from Norfolk, would not care for partridge-shooting in Somersetshire. 'I don't see why it shouldn't be as good here as there. 'Colonel Askerton thinks he has got a fair head of game upon the place. 'I dare say. Game is easily kept if people knew how to set about it.
Perhaps he hasn't thought of it. 'He thinks of everything, said Clara. 'I wonder whether he's thinking of . So far Mrs Askerton spoke, and then she paused. Colonel Askerton looked up at Clara with an ill-natured smile, and Clara felt that she blushed.
Before the day was over Colonel Askerton would probably know all that had happened to him. 'Do move a little quicker; will you? he said to the boy and the old man who was to drive him.
'We must put it off till May, after all, said Belton, as he was walking round the unfinished building with Colonel Askerton. 'It's an awful bore, but there's no getting people really to pull out in this country. 'I think they've pulled out pretty well. Of course you couldn't have gone into a damp house for the winter. 'Other people can get a house built within twelve months.
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