His return was therefore an event of considerable interest to the neighbourhood in which his place and property lay; and, doubtless, Mr Gwynne was not the only person who wished Colonel Vaughan to settle at Plas Abertewey.

When he was last at Glanyravon Park Mrs Gwynne was alive, Freda was a child of eight, and Miss Hall a very elegant and pretty young woman.  Mr Gwynne Vaughan was then one of her numerous admirers; but there was apparently no remnant of his early passion left, if you can judge of the heart of a man, or his character at least, by his face or manner.  Miss Hall was much more confused when she suddenly met him than he was when he first recognised her.

Freda had always had a pleasant recollection of him.  He had been very kind to her when she was a child, and an occasional letter to her father, or the intelligence, through the papers, of his distinguishing himself in India, or his gradual rise in the army, had kept alive a certain amount of interest in her mind for this old friend.

She showed it at once, and delighted Colonel Vaughan by the perfectly natural manner with which she welcomed him, and the frank heartiness of her expressed wish that he should remain in the country now he had returned to it.

‘We have never had any one we cared for at Abertewey,’ she said.  ’Sometimes it was an English family who came to ruin themselves in mining speculations; sometimes a sporting man who came for the hunting, shooting, and fishing; and now, if you don’t stay, I daresay it will be a Manchester mill owner or some such person.’

’Much nearer home, I fancy; but I believe it is a kind of secret, only I am so much like a woman that I cannot keep a secret.  To my utter astonishment I find it is to be a son of old Jenkins, the miser!  I remember the father, but the son was some years my junior.  You need not mention this, however, as it may fall to the ground.  He wanted to buy the place, but I am too patriotic still to wish to sell.’

‘Howel Jenkins! little Netta! at Abertewey!’ exclaimed the trio in concert.

‘True it is that mountains fall and mushrooms rise,’ said the colonel laughing.  ’But he has money, and as far as negotiations have gone, seems willing to pay, so I am content.’

‘And I am not,’ said Freda.  ’It will be odious, and I shall be so sorry for poor Mrs Prothero.  You must settle there yourself, Colonel Vaughan.’

‘A poor lonely bachelor with no money!’

‘Hem—­hem, you might find a wife, I should think,’ suggested Mr Gwynne.  ’There is a beautiful girl in this neighbourhood with thirty thousand pounds at her disposal.’

‘Oh, papa!’ said Freda frowning perceptibly, ’such an empty-headed, insipid idiot would be dear at a hundred thousand.’

Colonel Vaughan looked at Freda to see whether she was jealous, but could not quite understand the frown.

Soon after luncheon he took his leave, with promises to make Glanyravon his head-quarters if he remained any time in the country.