“But we don’t know her name,” they said, when they had taken the advice of the gentlemen on what they had already decided to do:  all excepting Mr. Pericles, for whom the surprise was in store.

“Belloni—­Miss Belloni,” said Wilfrid.

“Are you sure?  How do you know—?”

“She told Laura Tinley.”

Within five minutes of the receipt of this intelligence the ladies were on their way to Wilson’s farm.

CHAPTER IV

The circle which the ladies of Brookfield were designing to establish just now, was of this receipt:—­Celebrities, London residents, and County notables, all in their severally due proportions, were to meet, mix, and revolve:  the Celebrities to shine; the Metropolitans to act as satellites; the County ignoramuses to feel flattered in knowing that all stood forth for their amusement:  they being the butts of the quick-witted Metropolitans, whom they despised, while the sons of renown were encouraged to be conscious of their magnanimous superiority over both sets, for whose entertainment they were ticketed.

This is a pudding indeed!  And the contemplation of the skill and energy required to get together and compound such a Brookfield Pudding, well-nigh leads one to think the work that is done out of doors a very inferior business, and, as it were, mere gathering of fuel for the fire inside.  It was known in the neighbourhood that the ladies were preparing one; and moreover that they had a new kind of plum; in other words, that they intended to exhibit a prodigy of genius, who would flow upon the world from Brookfield.  To announce her with the invitations, rejecting the idea of a surprise in the assembly, had been necessary, because there was no other way of securing Lady Gosstre, who led the society of the district.  The great lady gave her promise to attend:  “though,” as she said to Arabella, “you must know I abominate musical parties, and think them the most absurd of entertainments possible; but if you have anything to show, that’s another matter.”

Two or three chosen friends were invited down beforehand to inspect the strange girl, and say what they thought of her; for the ladies themselves were perplexed.  They had found her to be commonplace:  a creature without ideas and with a decided appetite.  So when Tracy Runningbrook, who had also been a plum in his day, and was still a poet, said that she was exquisitely comic, they were induced to take the humorous view of the inexplicable side in the character of Miss Belloni, and tried to laugh at her eccentricities.  Seeing that Mr. Pericles approved of her voice as a singer, and Tracy Runningbrook let pass her behaviour as a girl, they conceived that on the whole they were safe in sounding a trumpet loudly.  These gentlemen were connoisseurs, each in his walk.