was touching, the Vicar and the autocrat
looked at one another, and the former suggested, 'Old Swan!'

'Yes,' said Lady Adela, 'old Swan lives out at Linghill, which is not
above half a mile from this house, but too far off for me to visit
constantly. I shall be very much obliged if you can undertake the
cottages there.'

'Thank you,' said Mary, as heartily as if she were receiving a commission
from the Bishop of the diocese.

'Did not Miss Morton mention something about a boys' class?' said Frank.
'I have been accustomed to a Sunday school.'

Mr. Woodman betrayed as much surprise as if he had said he was accustomed
to a coal mine; and Lady Adela observed graciously, 'Most of them have
gone into service this Michaelmas; but no doubt it will be a relief to
Mr. Woodman if you find time to undertake them.'

This was the gist of the first two morning calls, and there were many
more such periods of penance, for the bride and bridegroom were not
modern enough in their notions to sit up to await their visitors, and
thankful they were to those who would be at the expense of finding
conversation, though this was not always the case; for much of the
neighbourhood was of a description to be awed by the mere fact of a great
house, and to take the shyness of titled people for pride. Those with
whom they prospered best were a good-natured, merry old dowager duchess,
with whom they felt themselves in the altitude to which they were
accustomed at Hurminster; a loud-voiced, eager old squire, who was bent
on being Lord Northmoor's guide and prompter in county business; also an
eager, gushing lady, the echoes of whose communications made Frank
remark, after her departure, 'We must beware of encouraging gossip about
the former family.'

'Oh, I wish I had the power of setting people down when they say what is
undesirable, like Miss Lang, or Lady Adela!' sighed Mary.

'Try to think of them like your school girls,' he said.

The returning of the calls was like continually pulling the string of a
shower-bath, and glad were the sighs when people proved to be not at
home; but on the whole, being entertained was not half so formidable as
entertaining, and a bride was not expected to do more than sit in her
white silk, beside the host.

But the return parties were an incubus on their minds. Only they were
not to be till after Christmas.

CHAPTER XIII
THE DOWER HOUSE

Over the hearth of the drawing-room of the Dower House,