In reality he had done nothing to mar the reputation
that was beginning to attach to him. Fontenoy
was content; and the scantiness of the majority by
which the Resolution was defeated served at once to
make the prospects of the Maxwell Bill, which was
to be brought in after Easter, more doubtful, and
to sharpen the temper of its foes.
“Goodness!—what an ugly place it
is! It wants five thousand spent on it at once
to make it tolerable!”
The remark was Letty Tressady’s. She was
standing disconsolate on the lawn at Ferth, scanning
the old-fashioned house to which George had brought
her just five days before. They had been married
a fortnight, and were still to spend another week
in the country before going back to London and to
Parliament. But already Letty had made up her
mind that Ferth must be rebuilt and refurnished,
or she could never endure it.
She threw herself down on a garden seat with a sigh,
still studying the house. It was a straight barrack-like
building, very high for its breadth, erected early
in the last century by an architect who, finding that
he was to be allowed but a very scanty sum for his
performance, determined with considerable strength
of mind to spend all that he had for decoration upon
the inside rather than the outside of his mansion.
Accordingly the inside had charm—though
even so much Letty could not now be got to confess;
panellings, mantelpieces, and doorways showed the work
of a man of taste. But outside all that had been
aimed at was the provision of a central block of building
carried up to a considerable height so as to give
the rooms demanded, while it economised in foundations
and general space; an outer wall pierced with the plainest
openings possible at regular intervals; a high-pitched
roof to keep out the rain, whereof the original warm
tiles had been long since replaced by the chilliest
Welsh slates; and two low and disfiguring wings which
held the servants and the kitchens. The stucco
with which the house had been originally covered had
blackened under the influence of time, weather, and
the smoke from the Tressady coalpits. Altogether,
what with its pitchy colour, its mean windows, its
factory-like plainness and height, Ferth Place had
no doubt a cheerless and repellent air, which was
increased by its immediate surroundings. For it
stood on the very summit of a high hill, whereon the
trees were few and windbeaten; while the carriage
drives and the paths that climbed the hill were all
of them a coaly black. The flower garden behind
the house was small and neglected; neither shrubberies
nor kitchen garden, nor the small park, had any character
or stateliness; everything bore the stamp of bygone
possessors who had been rich neither in money nor
in fancy; who had been quite content to live small
lives in a small way.
Ferth’s new mistress thought bitterly of them,
as she sat looking at their handiwork. What could
be done with such a place? How could she have
London people to stay there? Why, their very maids
would strike! And, pray, what was a country house
worth, without the usual country-house amenities and
accessories?
