.

"Will you take a turn with me?" said Sir Marcus, in a whining voice,
that sounded like habitual complaint. "I 'm obliged to do this every
day; it 's the doctor's order. He says, 'Take the air and distract
yourself;' and I do so." L'Estrange had now seated himself, and they
drove away.

"I'm glad you've come," said Sir Marcus. "It will stop all this plotting
and intriguing. If you had delayed much longer, I think they 'd have
had a dozen here--one of them a converted Jew, a very dirty fellow. Oh,
dear, how fatiguing it is! that little crop-eared pony pulls so he can't
be held, and we call him John Bright; but don't mention it. I hope you
have no family, sir?"

"I have my sister only."

"A sister isn't so bad. A sister may marry, or she may--" What was the
other alternative did not appear, for John Bright bolted at this moment,
and it was full five minutes ere he could be pulled up again. "This is
the distraction I 'm promised," said the sick man. "If it was n't for
Mr. Needham--I call the near-sider Mr. Needham, as I bought him of
that gentleman--I 'd have too much distraction; but Needham never runs
away--he falls; he comes down as if he was shot!" cried he, with a
joyous twinkle of the eye, "and I bought him for that. There's no drag
ever was invented like a horse on his belly--the most inveterate runaway
can't escape against that." If the little cackle that followed this
speech did not sound exactly like a laugh, it was all of that emotion
that Sir Marcus ever permitted himself.

"I can't ask you if you like this place. You 're too newly come to
answer that question," resumed he; "but I may ask what is the sort of
society you prefer?"

"I 've seen next to nothing of the world since I left the University.
I have been living these last four or five years in one of the least
visited spots in Great Britain, and only since the arrival of the
Bramleigh family had a neighbor to speak to."

"Ah, then, you know these Bramleighs?" said the other with more
animation than he had yet displayed. "Overbearing people, I 've heard
they were--very rich, and insolent to a degree."

"I must say I have found them everything that was kind and considerate,
hospitable neighbors, and very warmhearted friends."

"That 's not the world's judgment on them, my dear sir--far from it.
They are a proverb for pretension and impertinence. As for Lady Augusta
here--to be sure she 's only one of them by marriage--but there's not
a soul in