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"And how many copies of Doré's 'Idylls of the King'?" "One came this morning from Mrs. Scobel. I think it was the fifth." "How many lockets inscribed with A. E. I. or 'Mizpah'?" "My darling, I could not possibly count those. There were three more by post this morning."
They all came to a standstill, as Mrs. Scobel had prophesied. For a quarter of an hour there was no progress whatever, and a good deal of recrimination among coachmen, and then the rest of the journey had to be done at a walking pace.
The Ellangowans had arrived, and Lady Ellangowan, who was full of good-nature, was quite ready to take Violet under her wing when Mrs. Scobel suggested that operation. "I can find her any number of partners," she said. "Oh, there she goes off already with Captain Winstanley." The Captain had lost no time in exacting his waltz.
When there was no hunting, he gave himself up to fishing, and found his chief delight in the persecution of innocent salmon. He supplied the Abbey House larder with fish, sent an occasional basket to a friend, and dispatched the surplus produce of his rod to a fishmonger in London. He was an enthusiast at billiards, and would play with innocent Mr. Scobel rather than not play at all.
Scobel, when they had driven through the little town of Ringwood, and were entering a land of level pastures and fertilising streams, which seemed wonderfully tame after the undulating forest; "it would be so much nicer for Violet to be in the Ellangowan set from the first." "I beg to state that Miss Tempest has promised me the first waltz," said Captain Winstanley.
He had an Advent service at seven o'clock that evening, and would but just have time to tramp home through the winter dark, and take a hurried meal, before he ran across to his neat little vestry and shuffled on his surplice, while Mrs. Scobel played her plaintive voluntary on the twenty-guinea harmonium. "And where is young Vawdrey now?" inquired Mrs. Tempest blandly.
Scobel was delighted with Captain Winstanley. He was just the kind of man to succeed in a rustic community. His quiet self-assurance set other people at their ease. He carried with him an air of life and movement, as if he were the patentee of a new pleasure. "My husband would be so pleased to see you at the Vicarage, if you are staying any time in the neighbourhood," she said.
The most exquisite thing, from the servants at Southminster. Could anything be nicer?" "Looks rather like a suggestion that Lady Almira may be given to curaçoa on the quiet," said the Captain. "And this lovely, lovely screen in crewels, by the Ladies Ringwood, after a picture by Alma Tadema," continued Mrs. Scobel. "Was there ever anything so perfect?
Violet looked at it with a curious half-reluctant glance that expressed the keenest pain. "Poor papa," she sighed. "He never seemed happier than when he used to take me to see the hounds." "Mr. Vawdrey is to have them next year," said Mrs. Scobel. "That seems right and proper. He will be the biggest man in this part of the country when the Ashbourne and Briarwood estates are united.
"I am going to drive Mr. and Mrs. Scobel," replied Vixen curtly. "But here is your carriage?" "I don t know. I rather think it was to meet us at the top of the hill." "Then let us go up together and find it unless you hate me too much to endure my company for a quarter of an hour or are too angry with me for my impertinence just now."
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