defection
was a great disappointment to them all. "I should like to have seen a
fine lady quite close," said Mary (it was not, I think, usual to speak
of "smart" people in those days), "one there could be no doubt about, a
little fast and all that. I have seen them in town at a distance, but
all the people we know are sure country people."

"My dear," said Mrs. Hudson, primly, "I don't like to hear you talk of
any other kind. An English lady, I hope, whatever is her rank, can only
be of one kind."

"Oh, mamma, you know very well Lady Mariamne is as different from Lady
Huntingtower as----"

"Don't mention names, my dear; it is not well-bred. The one is young,
and naturally fond of gayety; the other--well, is not quite so young,
and stout, and all that."

"Oh, that is all very well," said Alice; "but Aunt Mary says----"

Miss Dale was coming in the evening, and the Miss Hills, and the curate,
and the doctor, and various other people, who could not be asked to
dinner, to whom it had been carefully explained (which, indeed, was a
fact they knew) that to dine twelve people in the little dining-room
of the cottage was a feat which was accomplished with difficulty,
and that more was impossible. Society at Windyhill was very tolerant
and understanding on this point, for all the dining-rooms were small,
except, indeed, when you come to talk of such places as Huntingtower--and
they were very glad to be permitted to have a peep at the bridegroom on
these terms, or rather, if truth were told, of the bride, and how she
was bearing herself so near the crisis of her fate. The bridegroom is
seldom very interesting on such occasions. On the present occasion he
was more interesting than usual, because he was the Honourable Philip,
and because he had a reputation of which most people had heard something.
There was a mixture of alarm and suspicion in respect to him which
increased the excitement; and many remarks of varied kinds were made. "I
think the fellow's face quite bears out his character," said the doctor
to the Rector. "What a man to trust a nice girl to!" Mr. Hudson felt
that as the bridegroom was living under his roof he was partially
responsible, and discouraged this pessimistic view. "Mr. Compton has
not, perhaps, had all the advantages one tries to secure for one's own
son," he said, "but I have reason to believe that the things that have
been said of him are much exaggerated." "Oh, advantages!" said the
doctor, thinkin