xtremely shocked at her not having
interfered, and disregarding all signs to keep silence.

'Axworthy--worthy of the axe,' said Aubrey, well pleased to retort a
little teasing by the way; 'young Axworthy baiting the trap, and old
Axworthy sitting up in his den to grind the unwary limb from limb!'

'Ethel, why don't you tell him not?' exclaimed Gertrude.

'Because he knows papa's wishes as well as I do,' said Ethel; 'and it
is to them that he must attend, not to you or me.'

Aubrey muttered something about his father having said nothing to him;
and Ethel succeeded in preventing Daisy from resenting this answer.
She herself hoped to catch him in private, but he easily contrived to
baffle this attempt, and was soon marching out of Stoneborough in a
state of rampant independence, manhood, and resolute friendship, which
nevertheless chose the way where he was least likely to encounter a
little brown brougham.

Otherwise he might have reckoned three and a half miles of ploughed
field, soppy lane, and water meadow, as more than equivalent to five
miles of good turnpike road.

Be that as it might, he was extremely glad when, after forcing his way
through a sticky clayey path through a hazel copse, his eye fell on a
wide reach of meadow land, the railroad making a hard line across it at
one end, and in the midst, about half a mile off, the river meandering
like a blue ribbon lying loosely across the green flat, the handsome
buildings of the Vintry Mill lying in its embrace.

Aubrey knew the outward aspect of the place, for the foreman at the
mill was a frequent patient of his father's, and he had often waited in
the old gig at the cottage door at no great distance; but he looked
with more critical eyes at the home of his friend.

It was a place with much capacity, built, like the Grange, by the monks
of the convent, which had been the germ of the cathedral, and showing
the grand old monastic style in the solidity of its stone barns and
storehouses, all arranged around a court, whereof the dwelling-house
occupied one side, the lawn behind it with fine old trees, and sloping
down to the water, which was full of bright ripples after its agitation
around the great mill-wheel. The house was of more recent date, having
been built by a wealthy yeoman of Queen Anne's time, and had long
ranges of square-headed sash windows, surmounted by a pediment, carved
with emblems of Ceres and Bacchus, and a very tall front door, also
with