way" till after Mivers
had departed; or perhaps Sir Peter's parental anxiety rendered him, in
this instance, a shrewder observer than was the man of the world,
whose natural acuteness was, in matters of affection, not unfrequently
rendered languid by his acquired philosophy of indifferentism.

More and more every day, every hour, of her sojourn beneath his roof,
did Cecilia become dearer to Sir Peter, and stronger and stronger became
his wish to secure her for his daughter-in-law. He was inexpressibly
flattered by her preference for his company: ever at hand to share his
customary walks, his kindly visits to the cottages of peasants or the
homesteads of petty tenants; wherein both were sure to hear many a
simple anecdote of Master Kenelm in his childhood, anecdotes of whim or
good-nature, of considerate pity or reckless courage.

Throughout all these varieties of thought or feeling in the social
circle around her, Lady Chillingly preserved the unmoved calm of her
dignified position. A very good woman certainly, and very ladylike. No
one could detect a flaw in her character, or a fold awry in her flounce.
She was only, like the gods of Epicurus, too good to trouble her serene
existence with the cares of us simple mortals. Not that she was without
a placid satisfaction in the tribute which the world laid upon her
altars; nor was she so supremely goddess-like as to soar above the
household affections which humanity entails on the dwellers and denizens
of earth. She liked her husband as much as most elderly wives like their
elderly husbands. She bestowed upon Kenelm a liking somewhat more warm,
and mingled with compassion. His eccentricities would have puzzled her,
if she had allowed herself to be puzzled: it troubled her less to pity
them. She did not share her husband's desire for his union with Cecilia.
She thought that her son would have a higher place in the county if he
married Lady Jane, the Duke of Clanville's daughter; and "that is what
he ought to do," said Lady Chillingly to herself. She entertained
none of the fear that had induced Sir Peter to extract from Kenelm
the promise not to pledge his hand before he had received his father's
consent. That the son of Lady Chillingly should make a _mesalliance_,
however crotchety he might be in other respects, was a thought that it
would have so disturbed her to admit that she did not admit it.

Such was the condition of things at Exmundham when the lengthy
communicati