e, according to
bluff, gruff, rule-of-thumb old Butler. Depend upon it, there is
something in his dictum, too.

Amaryllis hesitated at the thought of the pork, for he often had it
underdone, so the old gentleman dismissed her in his most gracious
manner to dine with the rest.

She went down the corridor and took the seat placed for her. There was a
posy of primroses beside her napkin--posies of primroses all round the
table.

This raging old Tory of ninety years would give a shilling for the
earliest primrose the boys could find for him in the woods. Some one got
him a peacock's feather which had fallen from Beaconsfield's
favourites--a real Beaconsfield peacock-feather--which he had set in the
centre of a splendid screen of feathers that cost him twenty guineas.
The screen was upstairs in the great drawing-room near a bow window
which overlooked the fair.

People, you see, took pains to get him feathers and anything he fancied,
on account of the twenty thousand spade guineas in the iron box under
the bed.

His daughters, elderly, uninteresting married folk, begged him not to
keep a peacock's feather in the house--it would certainly bring
misfortune. The superstition was so firmly rooted in their minds that
they actually argued with him--_argued_ with Grandfather Iden!--pointing
out to him the fearful risk he was running. He puffed and coughed, and
grew red in the face--the great grey hat shook and tottered with anger;
not for all the Powers of Darkness would he have given up that feather.

The chairs round the large table were arranged in accordance with the
age of the occupants. There were twenty-one grandchildren, and a number
of aunts, uncles, and so on; a vague crowd that does not concern us. The
eldest sat at the head of the table, the next in age followed, and so
all round the dishes. This arrangement placed Amaryllis rather low
down--a long way from the top and fountain of honour--and highly
displeased her. She despised and disliked the whole vague crowd of her
relations, yet being there, she felt that she ought to have had a
position above them all. Her father--Iden, junior--was old Iden's only
son and natural heir; therefore her father's chair ought to have been at
the top of the table, and hers ought to have been next to his.

Instead of which, as her father was not the eldest, his seat was some
distance from the top, and hers again, was a long way from his.

All the other chairs were full, but her