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One or two Scottish retainers, or vavasours, maintaining, perhaps in prudence, a suitable deference to the English knights, sat at the bottom of the table, and as many English archers, peculiarly respected by their superiors, were invited, according to the modern phrase, to the honours of the sitting.
A quick change passed over the countenance of the man addressed. "Lady Emily, ma'am, never gave more than three-pence." This stately person had formerly served the Vavasours, and was much inclined to let his present mistress know it. Diana looked disappointed, but submissive. "Oh, very well, Brown I don't want to alter any of the old ways. But I hear the choir will come up to-night.
"Good!" said Lady Lucy, delighted that the Vavasours had been disagreeable. "Good-night, my son, good-night!" A minute later Oliver stood meditating in his own room, where he had just donned his smoking-jacket. By one of the natural ironies of life, at a moment when he was more in love than he had ever been yet, he was, nevertheless, thinking eagerly of prospects and of money.
It certainly seemed to both mother and son that the ingenuous young face colored a little as its owner replied "Thank you it was very amusing" and then added, with a little hesitation "Mr. Marsham has been kindly advising me since, about the gardens and the Vavasours. They were to keep up the gardens, you know and now they practically leave it to me which isn't fair." Mrs.
Vavasours subdivide again to vassals, exchanging land and cattle, human or otherwise, against fealty, and so the iron chain of a military hierarchy, forged of mutually interdependent links, is stretched over each little province. Impregnable castles, here more numerous than in any other part of Christendom, dot the level surface of the country.
This accomplishment of hers proved indeed a god-send; the young man found his tongue; and the visit ended much better than it began. As he said good-bye, he looked, round the drawing-room in wonderment. "How you've altered it! The Vavasours made it hideous. But I've only been in this room twice before, though my people have lived here thirty years. We were never smart enough for Lady Emily."
Now that her vigil was explained, for Bower had advanced with ready smile and outstretched hand, the Wraggs and Vavasours and de la Veres all the little coterie of gossips and scandalmongers were drawn to the center of the hall like steel filings to a magnet. Millicent ignored Bower. She was young enough and pretty enough to feel sure of her ability to deal with him subsequently.
As matters stood, however, Helen was a stumbling block in her path, and her jealous rage was in process of being fanned to a passionate intensity, when Spencer, searching for Mrs. de la Vere, saw Millicent in the midst of a group composed of the Vavasours, mother and son, the General, and his daughters. Mrs. de Courcy Vavasour was the evil spirit who brought about this sinister gathering.
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