skerton said as they all passed
through the village together. Clara muttered some reply, having not
as yet made up her mind as to what her conduct must be. Early on the
next morning Will Belton went away, and again Clara got up to give
him his breakfast. On this occasion he had no thought of kissing
her. He went away without having had a word said to him about
Mrs. Askerton, and then Clara settled herself down to the work of
deliberation. What should she do with reference to the communication
that had been made to her by Captain Aylmer?

CHAPTER XVII.

AYLMER PARK.

Aylmer Park and the great house of the Aylmers together formed an
important, and, as regarded in some minds, an imposing country
residence. The park was large, including some three or four hundred
acres, and was peopled, rather thinly, by aristocratic deer. It
was surrounded by an aristocratic paling, and was entered, at three
different points, by aristocratic lodges. The sheep were more
numerous than the deer, because Sir Anthony, though he had a large
income, was not in very easy circumstances. The ground was quite
flat; and though there were thin belts of trees, and some ornamental
timber here and there, it was not well wooded. It had no special
beauty of its own, and depended for its imposing qualities chiefly
on its size, on its three sets of double lodges, and on its
old-established character as an important family place in the county.
The house was of stone, with a portico of Ionic columns which looked
as though it hardly belonged of right to the edifice, and stretched
itself out grandly, with two pretentious wings, which certainly gave
it a just claim to be called a mansion. It required a great many
servants to keep it in order, and the numerous servants required an
experienced duenna, almost as grand in appearance as Lady Aylmer
herself, to keep them in order. There was an open carriage and a
close carriage, and a butler, and two footmen, and three gamekeepers,
and four gardeners, and there was a coachman, and there were grooms,
and sundry inferior men and boys about the place to do the work
which the gardeners and gamekeepers and grooms did not choose to
do themselves. And they all became fat, and lazy, and stupid, and
respectable together; so that, as the reader will at once perceive,
Aylmer Park was kept up in the proper English style. Sir Anthony
very often discussed with his steward the propriety of lessening the
expenditure of his