“I shall be very glad, Mr. Caresfoot.”

“Thank you; and perhaps till then you will not, unless he happens to ask you, mention the subject of our conversation to Philip.  I want to have a talk with him first.”

Maria assented, and the squire took his leave with the same magnificence of mien that had marked his arrival.

CHAPTER VIII

That evening his father astonished Philip by telling him that he intended to give a dinner-party on that day week.

“You see, Philip,” he said, with a grim smile, “I have only got a year or so at the most before me, and I wish to see a little of my neighbours before I go.  I have not had much society of late years.  I mean to do the thing well while I am about it, and ask everybody in the neighbourhood.  How many can dine with comfort in the old banqueting-hall, do you suppose?”

“About five-and-forty, I should think.”

“Five-and-forty!  I remember that we sat down sixty to dinner when I came of age, but then we were a little crowded; so we will limit the number to fifty.”

“Are you going to have fifty people to dinner?” asked Philip aghast.

“Certainly; I shall ask you to come and help me to write the invitations presently.  I have prepared a list; and will you kindly send over to Bell at Roxham.  I wish to speak to him, he must bring his men over to do up the old hall a bit; and, by the way, write to Gunter’s and order a man-cook to be here on Tuesday, and to bring with him materials for the best dinner for fifty people that he can supply.  I will see after the wine myself; we will finish off that wonderful port my grandfather laid down.  Now, bustle about, my lad, we have no time to lose; we must get all the notes out to-day.”

Philip started to execute his orders, pretty well convinced in his own mind that his father was taking leave of his senses.  Who ever heard of a dinner being given to fifty people before, especially in a house where such rare entertainments had always been of a traditionally select and solemn nature?  The expense, too, reflected Philip, would be large; a man of his father’s age had, in his opinion, no right to make such ducks-and-drakes of money that was so near to belonging to somebody else.  But one thing was clear:  his father had set his mind upon it, and when once that was the case to try to thwart him was more than Philip dared.

When the notes of invitation arrived at their respective destinations, great was the excitement in the neighbourhood of Bratham Abbey.  Curiosity was rampant on the point, and the refusals were few and far between.

At length the eventful evening arrived, and with it the expected guests, among whom the old squire, in his dress of a past generation—­ resplendent in diamond buckles, frilled shirt-front, and silk stockings—­was, with his snow-white hair and stately bearing, himself by far the most striking figure.