‘Thank you,’ said Mr. Hammond, beginning to play.  ’Matrimonial views, of course.  Very natural that her ladyship should expect such a lovely creature to make a great match.  Is there no one in view?  Has there been no family conclave—­no secret treaty?  Is the young lady fancy free?’

’Perfectly.  She has been buried alive here; except parsons and a few decent people whom she is allowed to meet now and then at the houses about here, she has seen nothing of the world.  My grandmother has kept Lesbia as close as a nun.  She is not so fond of Molly, and that young person has wild ways of her own, and gives everybody the slip.  By-the-by, how do you like my little Moll?’

The adjective was hardly accurate about a young lady who measured five feet six, but Maulevrier had not yet grown out of the ideas belonging to that period when Mary was really his little sister, a girl of twelve, with long hair and short petticoats.

Mr. Hammond was slow to reply.  Mary had not made a very strong impression upon him.  Dazzled by her sister’s pure and classical beauty, he had no eyes for Mary’s homelier charms.  She seemed to him a frank, affectionate girl, not too well-mannered; and that was all he thought of her.

‘I’m afraid Lady Mary does not like me,’ he said, after his shot, which gave him time for reflection.

’Oh, Molly is rather farouche in her manners; never would train fine, don’t you know.  Her ladyship lectured till she was tired, and now Mary runs wild, and I suppose will be left at grass till six months before her presentation, and then they’ll put her on the pillar-reins a bit to give her a better mouth.  Good shot, by Jove!’

John Hammond was used to his lordship’s style of conversation, and understood his friend at all times.  Maulevrier was not an intellectual companion, and the distance was wide between the two men; but his lordship’s gaiety, good-nature, and acuteness made amends for all shortcomings in culture.  And then Mr. Hammond may have been one of those good Conservatives who do not expect very much intellectual power in an hereditary legislator.

CHAPTER VII.

IN THE SUMMER MORNING.

John Hammond loved the wild freshness of morning, and was always eager to explore a new locality; so he was up at five o’clock next morning, and out of doors before six.  He left the sophisticated beauty of the Fellside gardens below him, and climbed higher and higher up the Fell, till he was able to command a bird’s-eye view of the lake and village, and just under his feet, as it were, Lady Maulevrier’s favourite abode.  He was provided with a landscape glass which he always carried in his rambles, and with the aid of this he could see every stone of the building.