’I hope you will learn to like this other man
much better. Think how nice it will be to be
mistress of the old place after all. And then
to go back to the old family name! If I were
you I would make up my mind not to let him leave the
place till I had brought him to my feet.’
‘If you go on like that I will not speak to
you about him again.’
’Or rather not to my feet for gentlemen have
laid aside the humble way of making love for the last
twenty years at least; but I don’t know whether
the women haven’t gained quite as much by the
change as the men.’
’As I know nothing will stop you when you once
get into a vein of that kind, I shall go,’ said
Clara. ’And till this man has come and gone
I shall not mention his name again in your presence.’
‘So be it,’ said Mrs Askerton; ’but
as I will promise to say nothing more about him, you
need not go on his account.’ But Clara had
got up, and did leave the cottage at once.
WILL BELTON
Mr Belton came to the castle, and nothing further
had been said at the cottage about his coming.
Clara had seen Mrs Askerton in the meantime frequently,
but that lady had kept her promise almost to Clara’s
disappointment. For she though she had in truth
disliked the proposition that her cousin could be
coming with any special views with reference to herself
had nevertheless sufficient curiosity about the stranger
to wish to talk about him. Her father, indeed,
mentioned Belton’s name very frequently, saying
something with reference to him every time he found
himself in his daughter’s presence. A dozen
times he said that the man was heartless to come to
the house at such a time, and he spoke of his cousin
always as though the man were guilty of a gross injustice
in being heir to the property. But not the less
on that account did he fidget himself about the room
in which Belton was to sleep, about the food that
Belton was to eat, and especially about the wine that
Belton was to drink. What was he to do for wine?
The stock of wine in the cellars at Belton Castle
was, no doubt, very low. The squire himself drank
a glass or two of port daily, and had some remnant
of his old treasures by him, which might perhaps last
him his time; and occasionally there came small supplies
of sherry from the grocer at Taunton; but Mr Amedroz
pretended to think that Will Belton would want champagne
and claret and he would continue to make these suggestions
in spite of his own repeated complaints that the man
was no better than an ordinary farmer. ‘I’ve
no doubt he’ll like beer,’ said Clara.
‘Beer!’ said her father, and then stopped
himself, as though. he were lost in doubt whether
it would best suit him to scorn his cousin for having
so low a taste as that suggested on his behalf, or
to ridicule his daughter’s idea that the household
difficulty admitted of so convenient a solution.
