d told him that according to her
ladyship's will, Belthorpe was to be kept up exactly as it had been
in her life-time, and the servants had received notice, that in
pursuance of her ladyship's expressed wish, Mr. Fletcher would make
no changes, and that they were free to remain on if they thought
proper. Mike approved of this arrangement--it saved him from a task
of finding new servants, a task which he would have bungled sadly,
and which he would have had to attempt, for he had decided to enjoy
all the pleasures of a country place, and to act the country
gentleman until he wearied of the part. Life is but a farce, and the
more different parts you play in that farce the more you enjoy. Here
was a new farce--he the Bohemian, going down to an old ancestral home
to play the part of the Squire of the parish. It could not but prove
rich in amusing situations, and he was determined to play it. What a
sell it would be for Lily, for perhaps she had refused him because
she thought he was poor. Contemptuous thoughts about women rose in
his mind, but they died in thronging sensations of vanity--he, at
least, had not found women mercenary. Lily was the first! Then
putting thoughts of her utterly aside, he surrendered himself to the
happy consideration of his own good fortune. "A new farce! Yes; that
was the way to look upon it. I wonder what the servants will think! I
wonder what they'll think of me! ... Harrison, the butler, was with
her in Green Street. Her maid, Fairfield, was with her when I saw her
last--nearly three years ago. Fairfield knew I was her lover, and she
has told the others. But what does it matter? I don't care a damn
what they think. Besides, servants are far more jealous of our honour
than we are ourselves; they'll trump up some story about cousinship,
or that I had saved her ladyship's life--not a bad notion that last;
I had better stick to it myself."

As he sought a plausible tale, his thoughts detached themselves, and
it struck him that the gentleman sitting opposite was his next-door
neighbour. He imagined his visit; the invitation to dine; the
inevitable daughters in the drawing-room. How would he be received by
the county folks?

"That depends," he thought, "entirely on the number of unmarried
girls there are in the neighbourhood. The morals and manners of an
English county are determined by its female population. If the number
of females is large, manners are familiar, and morals are lax; if the
numb