examining the
lock of the well-finished rifle. "I was to tell Lady Lyle something
about cabbages or the mill-race,--which was it?"

"You are not to make a fool of yourself, Tony," said she, half vexed and
half amused. "I 'll keep my message for another day."

"And you'll do well," said he; "besides, I'm not very sure that I 'll go
further than the gate-lodge;" and so saying, he took his hat, and, with
the rifle on his shoulder, strolled out of the room.

"Ah! he 's more like his father every day!" sighed she, as she looked
after him; and if there was pride in the memory, there was some pain
also.

CHAPTER XXI. A COMFORTABLE COUNTRY-HOUSE

If a cordial host and a graceful hostess can throw a wondrous charm over
the hospitalities of a house, there is a feature in those houses where
neither host nor hostess is felt which contributes largely to the
enjoyment of the assembled company. I suspect, indeed, that republics
work more smoothly domestically than nationally. Tilney was certainly
a case in point. Mrs. Maxwell was indeed the owner,--the demesne, the
stables, the horses, the gardens, the fish-ponds, were all hers; but
somehow none of the persons under her roof felt themselves her guests.
It was an establishment in which each lived as he liked, gave his own
orders, and felt very possibly more at home, in the pleasant sense
of the phrase, than in his own house. Dinner alone was a "fixture;"
everything else was at the caprice of each. The old lady herself was
believed to take great pride in the perfect freedom her guests enjoyed;
and there was a story current of a whole family who partook of her
hospitalities for three weeks, meeting her once afterwards in a
watering-place, and only recognizing her as an old woman they saw at
Tilney. Other tales there were of free comments of strangers made upon
the household, the dinners, and such-like to herself, in ignorance of
who she was, which she enjoyed vastly, and was fond of relating, in
strict confidence, to her few intimates.

If there were a number of pleasant features in such a household, there
were occasionally little trifling drawbacks that detracted slightly from
its perfect working,--mere specks in the sun, it is true, and, after
all, only such defects as are inseparable from all things where humanity
enters and influences. One of these--perhaps the most marked one--was
the presumption of certain _habitues_ to install themselves in certain
rooms, which, from lo