e a woman to wager as men
do, I 'd stake a thousand pounds to five on her never stepping across the
threshold of Steignton. All very well in London, and that place he hires
up at Marlow. He respects our home. That 's how I know my brother Rowsley
still keeps a sane man. A fortune on it!--and so says Mr. Eglett. Any
reasonable person must think it. He made a fool of some Hampton-Evey at
Madrid, if he went through any ceremony--and that I doubt. But she and
old (what do they call her?) may have insisted upon the title, as much as
they could. He sixty; she under twenty, I'm told. Pagnell 's the name.
That aunt of a good-looking young woman sees a noble man of sixty
admiring her five feet seven or so--she's tall--of marketable
merchandise, and she doesn't need telling that at sixty he'll give the
world to possess the girl. But not his family honour! He stops at that.
Why? Lord Ormont 's made of pride! He'll be kind to her, he'll be
generous, he won't forsake her; she'll have her portion in his will, and
by the course of things in nature, she'll outlive him and marry, and be
happy, I hope. Only she won't enter Steignton. You remember what I say.
You 'll live when I 'm gone. It 's the thirst of her life to be mistress
of Steignton. Not she!--though Lord Ormont would have us all open our
doors to her; mine too, now he 's about it. He sets his mind on his plan,
and he forgets rights and dues--everything; he must have it as his will
dictates. That 's how he made such a capital soldier. You know the
cavalry leader he was. If they'd given him a field in Europe! His enemies
admit that. Twelve! and my clock's five minutes or more slow. What can
Rowsley be doing?'

She rattled backward on the scene at Steignton, and her brother's
handsome preservation of his dignity 'stood it like the king he is!' and
to the Morsfield-May encounter, which had prevented another; and Mrs. May
was rolled along in the tide, with a hint of her good reason for liking
Lord Ormont; also the change of opinion shown by the Press as to Lord
Ormont's grand exploit. Referring to it, she flushed and jigged on her
chair for a saddle beneath her. And that glorious Indian adventure warmed
her to the man who had celebrated it among his comrades when a boy at
school.

'You 're to teach Latin and Greek, you said. For you 're right: we
English can't understand the words we 're speaking, if we don't know a
good deal of Latin and some Greek. "Conversing in tokens, not sta