ys, life settled itself to orderly occupations. The Squire
was a late riser; the Judge and his family breakfasted very early. Then
the two women had a ride in the park, or wandered in the garden, or sat
reading, or sewing, or writing in some of the sweet, fair rooms. Many
visitors soon appeared, and there were calls to return and courtesies to
accept. Among these visitors the Tyrrel-Rawdons were the earliest. The
representatives of that family were Nicholas Rawdon and his wife Lydia.
Nicholas Rawdon was a large, stout man, very arrogant, very complete,
very alert for this world, and not caring much about the other. He was
not pleased at Judge Rawdon's visit, but thought it best to be
cousinly until his cousin interfered with his plans--"rights" he called
them--"and then!" and his "THEN" implied a great deal, for Nicholas
Rawdon was a man incapable of conceiving the idea of loving an enemy.

His wife was a pleasant, garrulous woman, who interested Ethel very
much. Her family was her chief topic of conversation. She had two
daughters, one of whom had married a baronet, "a man with money and easy
to manage"; and the other, "a rich cotton lord in Manchester."

"They haven't done badly," she said confidentially, "and it's a great
thing to get girls off your hands early. Adelaide and Martha were well
educated and suitable, but," she added with a glow of pride, "you should
see my John Thomas. He's manager of the mill, and he loves the mill, and
he knows every pound of warp or weft that comes in or goes out of the
mill; and what his father would do without him, I'm sure I don't know.
And he is a member of Parliament, too--Radical ticket. Won over Mostyn.
Wiped Mostyn out pretty well. That was a thing to do, wasn't it?"

"I suppose Mr. Mostyn was the Conservative candidate?"

"You may be sure of that. But my John Thomas doesn't blame him for
it--the gentry have to be Conservatives. John Thomas said little against
his politics; he just set the crowd laughing at his ways--his dandified
ways. And he tried to wear one eyeglass, and let it fall, and fall, and
then told the men 'he couldn't manage half a pair of spectacles; but he
could manage their interests and fight for their rights,' and such like
talk. And he walked like Mostyn, and he talked like Mostyn, and spread
out his legs, and twirled his walking stick like Mostyn, and asked them
'if they would wish him to go to Parliament in that kind of a shape, as
he'd try and do it i