rm-house life, and to belong to the place as much as the massive beams
and doors.

Hester stood in the middle of the hall and looked about her. Part of it
was oak panelled and part was whitewashed. There were deep, low windows
cut in the thick walls.

"I never saw anything the least like it," she said.

"You wouldn't expect to see anything like it in India," her husband
answered. "And you won't find many places like it in England. I should
like a look at the stables."

He went out almost immediately and took the look in question, finding
the result unexpectedly satisfactory. Walderhurst had lent him a decent
horse to ride, and there was a respectable little cart for Hester.
Palstrey Manor had "done them" very well. This was a good deal more than
he had expected. He knew such hospitality would not have been shown him
if he had come to England unmarried. Consequently his good luck was
partly a result of Hester's existence in his life. At the same time
there awakened in him a consciousness that Hester would not have been
likely to produce such results unless in combination with another
element in the situation,--the element of another woman who was
sympathetic and had some power,--the new Lady Walderhurst, in fact.

"And yet, confound her--confound her!" he thought, as he walked into the
loose box to look the mare over and pat her sleekness.

The relations which established themselves between Palstrey and The
Kennel Farm were marked by two characteristic features. One of these was
that Lord Walderhurst did not develop any warmer interest in the
Osborns, and that Lady Walderhurst did. Having acceded to Emily's
wishes, and really behaved generously in the matter of providing for his
heir presumptive and his wife, Lord Walderhurst felt impelled to no
further demonstration of feeling.

"I don't like him any better than I did," he remarked to Emily. "And I
cannot say that Mrs. Osborn attracts me. Of course there is a reason why
a kind-hearted woman like yourself should be specially good to her just
now. Do anything you wish for them while they are in the neighbourhood.
But as for me, the fact that a man is one's heir presumptive is not
enough in itself alone to endear him to one, rather the contrary."

Between these two it is to be confessed there existed that rancour which
is not weakened by the fact that it remains unexpressed and lurks in the
deeps of the inward being. Walderhurst would not have been capable of
expl