ilions and four horses were in these
days thought ostentatious except for very great national or local
potentates. "If I were a peeress, I would have them," she declared
rather wistfully. If that were the condition and the only one, after all
we might perhaps live to see the four horses and the postilions at
Breysgate before we were many months older. By now, there was matter for
much speculation about her future; the closer you were to her, the more
doubtful any speculation seemed.

This was the time of her greatest glory--when she was fresh to her state
and delighting in it, when all the neighborhood seemed to be at her
feet, town and county vying in doing her honor--and in accepting her
hospitality.

Entertainment followed entertainment; now it was the poor, now it was
the rich, whom she fed and feted. The crown of her popularity came
perhaps when she declared that she would have no London house and wanted
no London season. Catsford and the county were good enough for her. The
_Catsford Herald and Times_ printed an article on this subject which was
almost lyrical in its anticipation of a return of the good old days when
the aristocracy found their own town enough. It was headed "Catsford a
Metropolis--Why not?" And it was Jenny who was to imbue the borough with
this enviable metropolitan character! This was _Redeunt Saturnia regna_
with a vengeance!

To all outward appearance she was behaving admirably--and her
acquaintance with Fillingford had reached to as near intimacy as it was
ever likely to get while it rested on a basis of mere neighborly
friendship. Lady Sarah had been convinced or vanquished--it was
impossible to say which. At any rate she had withdrawn her opposition to
intercourse between the two houses and appeared to contemplate with
resignation, if not with enthusiasm, a prospect of which people had now
begun to talk--not always under their breath. Fillingford Manor and
Breysgate were now united closely enough for folk to ask whether they
were to be united more closely still. For my own part I must admit that,
if Lord Fillingford were wooing, he showed few of the usual signs; but
perhaps Jenny was! I remembered the story of Rabbit--without forgetting
the subject of the other nickname!

Old Cartmell was a great advocate of the Fillingford alliance. House
laid to house and field to field were anathema to the Prophet; for a
family lawyer they have a wonderful attraction. An estate well-rounded
off, sp