Park, and get
Frederic to write also.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY HOTEL.

At the door of the hotel of the Great Northern Railway Station they
met Captain Aylmer. Rooms had been taken there because they were to
start by an early train on that line in the morning, and Captain
Aylmer had undertaken to order dinner. There was nothing particular
in the meeting to make it unpleasant to our friend Will. The
fortunate rival could do no more in the hall of the inn than give his
hand to his affianced bride, as he might do to any other lady, and
then suggest to her that she should go up-stairs and see her room.
When he had done this, he also offered his hand to Belton; and Will,
though he would almost sooner have cut off his own, was obliged to
take it. In a few minutes the two men were standing alone together in
the sitting-room.

"I suppose you found it cold coming up?" said the captain.

"Not particularly," said Will.

"It's rather a long journey from Belton."

"Not very long," said Will.

"Not for you, perhaps; but Miss Amedroz must be tired."

Belton was angry at having his cousin called Miss Amedroz,--feeling
that the reserve of the name was intended to keep him at a distance.
But he would have been equally angry had Aylmer called her Clara.

"My cousin," said Will stoutly, "is able to bear slight fatigue of
that kind without suffering."

"I didn't suppose she suffered; but journeys are always tedious,
especially where there is so much road work. I believe you are twenty
miles from the station?"

"Belton Castle is something over twenty miles from Taunton."

"We are seven from our station at Aylmer Park, and we think that a
great deal."

"I'm more than that at Plaistow," said Will.

"Oh, indeed. Plaistow is in Norfolk, I believe?"

"Yes;--Plaistow is in Norfolk."

"I suppose you'll leave it now and go into Somersetshire," suggested
Captain Aylmer.

"Certainly not. Why should I leave it?"

"I thought, perhaps,--as Belton Castle is now your own--"

"Plaistow Hall is more my own than Belton Castle, if that signifies
anything,--which it doesn't." This he said in an angry tone, which,
as he became conscious of it, he tried to rectify. "I've a deal of
stock and all that sort of thing at Plaistow, and couldn't very well
leave it, even if I wished it," he said.

"You've pretty good shooting too, I suppose," said Aylmer.

"As far as partridges go I'll back it against most properties