other. Vigo was her name; now I recollect it,--a Miss Vigo. It's
nine or ten years ago now, and I was little more than a boy."

"Her name was Oliphant."

"I don't suppose they have anything to do with each other. What riled
me was the way she talked of the shooting. People do when they take
a little shooting. They pay some trumpery thirty or forty pounds a
year, and then they seem to think that it's almost the same as though
they owned the property themselves. I've known a man talk of his
manor because he had the shooting of a wood and a small farm round
it. They are generally shopkeepers out of London, gin distillers, or
brewers, or people like that."

"Why, Mr. Belton, I didn't think you could be so furious!"

"Can't I? When my back's up, it is up! But it isn't up yet."

"And I hope it won't be up while you remain in Somersetshire."

"I won't answer for that. There's Stovey's empty cart standing
just where it stood yesterday; and he promised he'd have it home
before three to-day. My back will be up with him if he doesn't mind
himself."

It was nearly six o'clock when they got back to the house, and Clara
was surprised to find that she had been out three hours with her
cousin. Certainly it had been very pleasant. The usual companion
of her walks, when she had a companion, was Mrs. Askerton; but Mrs.
Askerton did not like real walking. She would creep about the grounds
for an hour or so, and even such companionship as that was better to
Clara than absolute solitude; but now she had been carried about the
place, getting over stiles and through gates, and wandering through
the copses, till she was tired and hungry, and excited and happy.
"Oh, papa," she said, "we have had such a walk!"

"I thought we were to have dined at five," he replied, in a low
wailing voice.

"No, papa, indeed,--indeed you said six."

"That was for yesterday."

"You said we were to make it six while Mr. Belton was here."

"Very well;--if it must be, I suppose it must be."

"You don't mean on my account," said Will. "I'll undertake to eat
my dinner, sir, at any hour that you'll undertake to give it me. If
there's a strong point about me at all, it is my appetite."

Clara, when she went to her father's room that evening, told him what
Mr. Belton had said about the shooting, knowing that her father's
feelings would agree with those which had been expressed by her
cousin. Mr. Amedroz of course made this an occasion for further
grumbli