Baby Jack proposed the health of the bridesmaids, adding, more especially, that of the absent one, as a little heroine; and, after the response, came a ponderous speech by another kinsman, full of compliments to Harold’s courage in a fulsome style that made me flush with the vexation it must give him, and the annoyance it would be to reply.  I had been watching him.  As a pile of lumps of ice fortunately stood near him, he had, at every interval, been transferring one to his glass, filling it up with water, guarding it from the circling decanters, and taking such a draught at every toast that I knew his mouth was parched, and I dreaded that sheer worry would make him utter one of his “young barbarian” bluntnesses; but what he did was to stand up and say simply, “It is very kind of Colonel Horsman to speak in this way of my share in the great mercy and deliverance we have received to-day.  It is a matter of the greatest thankfulness.  Let me in return thank the friends here assembled for their welcome, and, above all, for their appreciation of my cousin, whose position now fulfils my great wish.  Three years ago we were friendless strangers.  Now he has made himself one with you, and I thank you heartily for it.”

I felt rather than heard Nessy Horsman muttering, “pretty well for the large young man;” and it seemed to occur to no one that friends, position, and all had been gained for Eustace by Harold himself.  He was requesting permission to take Dora back with us, and it was granted with some demur, because she must be with Mrs. Randal Horsman on her return to town on the Monday; a day’s lessons could not be sacrificed, for she was very backward, and had no application; but Harold undertook that she should meet the lady at the station, and gained his point.

Clan Horsman knew too well what he had done to deny him anything he asked.  A man who had not only taken a mad dog by the throat, but had brought home two hundred and twenty pounds worth of gold to lay on the table, deserved something at their hands, though ice was all he actually received; but Eustace, when he came to us while the bride was changing her dress, was in a fretful, fault-finding mood, partly it may be from the desire to assert himself, as usual, above his cousin.

He was dissatisfied with the price paid for Boola-Boola.  Someone had told him it would realise four times as much, and when Harold would have explained that this was unreasonable, he was cut short with the declaration that the offer ought not to have been accepted without reference to the other party concerned.

Next he informed Harold, in an off-hand way, that some of the new improvements at Arghouse would not work, and that he had a new agent—­ -a responsible agent—­who was not to be interfered with.

There was a certain growl in Harold’s “very well,” but the climax was Eustace’s indignation when he heard of Prometesky’s arrival.  He had worked himself, by way of doing the country squire completely, into a disgust of the old exile, far out-Heroding what he had heard from Lord Erymanth, and that “the old incendiary” should be in his house was a great offence.