‘Singular!’ murmured the clergyman, still in the same absent way.

’Is it not?  He took so to the young fellows; no doubt he was flattered to be allied to them.  And then he was passionately devoted to his daughter; if only for her sake, he would have done his utmost for the family.’

‘I understand that Mr. Mutimer purchased the Manor from them?’

’That was before the marriage.  Godfrey Eldon sold it; he had his father’s taste for speculation, I fancy, and wanted capital.  Then Mr. Mutimer begged them to remain in the house.  He certainly was a wonderfully kind old—­old gentleman; his behaviour to Mrs. Eldon was always the perfection of courtesy.  A stranger would find it difficult to understand how she could get on so well with him, but their sorrows brought them together, and Mr. Mutimer’s generosity was really noble.  If I had not known his origin, I should certainly have taken him for a county gentleman.’

‘Yet he proposed to mine in the valley,’ observed Mr. Wyvern, half to himself, casting a glance at the window.

Mrs. Waltham did not at first see the connection between this and what she had been saying.  Then it occurred to her that Mr. Wyvern was aristocratic in his views.

‘To be sure,’ she said, ’one expects to find a little of the original—­of the money-making spirit.  Of course such a thing would never have suggested itself to the Eldons.  And in fact very little of the lands remained to them.  Mr. Mutimer bought a great deal from other people.’

As Mr. Wyvern sat brooding, Mrs. Waltham asked—­

‘You have seen Mrs. Eldon?’

’ Not yet.  She is too unwell to receive visits.’

’Yes, poor thing, she is a great invalid.  I thought, perhaps, you—.  But I know she likes to be very quiet.  What a strange thing about Mr. Eldon, is it not?  You know that he has never come yet; not even to the funeral.’

‘Singular!’

’An inexplicable thing!  There has never been a shadow of disagreement between them.’

‘Mr. Eldon is abroad, I believe?’ said the clergyman musingly.

’Abroad?  Oh dear, no!  At least, I—.  Is there news of his being abroad?’

Mr. Wyvern merely shook his head.

‘As far as we know,’ Mrs. Waltham continued, rather disturbed by the suggestion, ‘he is at Oxford.’

‘A student?’

‘Yes.  He is quite a youth—­only two-and-twenty.’

There was a knock at the door, and a maid-servant entered to ask if she should lay the table for tea.  Mrs. Waltham assented; then, to her visitor—­

’You will do us the pleasure of drinking a cup of tea, Mr. Wyvern? we make a meal of it, in the country way.  My boy and girl are sure to be in directly.’

‘I should like to make their acquaintance,’ was the grave response.

‘Alfred, my son,’ the lady proceeded, ’is with us for his Easter holiday.  Belwick is so short a distance away, and yet too far to allow of his living here, unfortunately.’