He felt that he had nothing more to say, and then
he left her; but he had gained nothing by the interview.
She was still hard and cold, and still assumed a tone
which seemed to imply that she had manifestly been
the injured person.
Colonel Osborne, when he was left alone, stood for
a few moments on the spot, and then with a whistle,
a shake of the head, and a little low chuckle of laughter,
rejoined the crowd.
MISS JEMIMA STANBURY, OF EXETER
Miss Jemima Stanbury, the aunt of our friend Hugh,
was a maiden lady, very much respected, indeed, in
the city of Exeter. It is to be hoped that no
readers of these pages will be so un-English as to
be unable to appreciate the difference between county
society and town society, the society, that is, of
a provincial town, or so ignorant as not to know also
that there may be persons so privileged, that although
they live distinctly within a provincial town, there
is accorded to them, as though by brevet rank, all
the merit of living in the county. In reference
to persons so privileged, it is considered that they
have been made free from the contamination of contiguous
bricks and mortar by certain inner gifts, probably
of birth, occasionally of profession, possibly of
merit. It is very rarely, indeed, that money
alone will bestow this acknowledged rank; and in Exeter,
which by the stringency and excellence of its well-defined
rules on such matters, may perhaps be said to take
the lead of all English provincial towns, money alone
has never availed. Good blood, especially if
it be blood good in Devonshire, is rarely rejected.
Clergymen are allowed within the pale though by no
means as certainly as used to be the case; and, indeed,
in these days of literates, clergymen have to pass
harder examinations than those ever imposed upon them
by bishops’ chaplains, before they are admitted
ad eundem among the chosen ones of the city of Exeter.
The wives and daughters of the old prebendaries see
well to that. And, as has been said, special
merit may prevail. Sir Peter Mancrudy, the great
Exeter physician, has won his way in, not at all by
being Sir Peter, which has stood in his way rather
than otherwise, but by the acknowledged excellence
of his book about saltzes. Sir Peter Mancrudy
is supposed to have quite a metropolitan, almost a
European reputation and therefore is acknowledged to
belong to the county set, although he never dines
out at any house beyond the limits of the city.
Now, let it be known that no inhabitant of Exeter
ever achieved a clearer right to be regarded as ‘county,’
in opposition to ‘town,’ than had Miss
Jemima Stanbury. There was not a tradesman in
Exeter who was not aware of it, and who did not touch
his hat to her accordingly. The men who drove
the flies, when summoned to take her out at night,
would bring oats with them, knowing how probable it
was that they might have to travel far. A distinct
