“The truth is, I rather avoid that sort of thing,” said the squire, smiling.  “I would rather enter upon my dominions as quietly as possible.”

“It is much better for the people, too,” remarked Mrs. Ambrose.  “Their idea of a holiday is to do no work and have too much beer.”

“I daresay that would not hurt them much,” answered Mr. Juxon cheerfully.  “By the bye, I know nothing about them.  I have never been here before.  My man of business wanted to come down and show me over the estate, and introduce me to the farmers and all that, but I thought it would be such a bore that I would not have him.”

“There is not much to tell, really,” said Mr. Ambrose.  “The society of Billingsfield is all here,” he added with a smile, “including one of your tenants.”

“Are you my tenant?” asked Mr. Juxon pleasantly, and he looked at Mrs. Goddard.

“Yes,” said she, “I have taken the cottage.”

“The cottage?  Excuse me, but you know I am a stranger here—­what is the cottage?”

“Such a pretty place,” answered Mrs. Ambrose, “just opposite the park gate.  You must have seen it as you came down.”

“Oh, is that it?” said the squire.  “Yes, I saw it, and I wished I lived there instead of in the Hall.  It looks so comfortable and small.  The Hall is a perfect wilderness.”

Mrs. Goddard felt a sudden fear lest her new landlord should take it into his head to give her notice.  She only took the cottage by the year and her present lease ended in October.  The arrival of a squire in possession at the Hall was a catastrophe to which she had not looked forward.  The idea troubled her.  She had accidentally made Mr. Juxon’s acquaintance, and she knew enough of the world to understand that in such a place he would regard her as a valuable addition to the society of the vicar and the vicar’s wife.  She would meet him constantly; there would be visitors at the Hall—­she would have to meet them, too.  Her dream of solitude was at an end.  For a moment she seemed so nervous that Mr. Juxon observed her embarrassment and supposed it was due to his remark about living in the cottage himself.

“Do not be afraid, Mrs. Goddard,” he said quickly, “I am not going to do anything so uncivil as to ask you to give up the cottage.  Besides, it would be too small, you know.”

“Have you any family, Mr. Juxon?” inquired Mrs. Ambrose with a severity which startled the squire.  Mrs. Ambrose thought that if there was a Mrs. Juxon, she had been unpardonably deceived.  Of course Mr. Juxon should have said that he was married as soon as he entered the room.

“I have a very large family,” answered the squire, and after enjoying for a moment the surprise he saw in Mrs. Ambrose’s face, he added with a laugh, “I have a library of ten thousand volumes—­a very large family indeed.  Otherwise I have no encumbrances, thank heaven.”

“You are a scholar?” asked Mr. Ambrose eagerly.