best houses in the village.  The baker lives here, and that respectable woman, Mrs Frummage, who sells ribbons, and toys, and soap, and straw bonnets, with many other things too long to mention.  Here, too, lives an apothecary, whom the veneration of this and neighbouring parishes has raised to the dignity of a doctor.  And here also, in the smallest but prettiest cottage that can be imagined, lives Mrs Hearn, the widow of a former vicar, on terms, however, with her neighbour the squire which I regret to say are not as friendly as they should be.  Beyond this lady’s modest residence, Allington Street, for so the road is called, turns suddenly round towards the church, and at the point of the turn is a pretty low iron railing with a gate, and with a covered way, which leads up to the front door of the house which stands there, I will only say here, at this fag end of a chapter, that it is the Small House at Allington.  Allington Street, as I have said, turns short round towards the church at this point, and there ends at a white gate, leading into the churchyard by a second entrance.

So much it was needful that I should say of Allington Great House, of the Squire, and of the village.  Of the Small House, I will speak separately in a further chapter.

CHAPTER II

The Two Pearls of Allington

“But Mr Crosbie is only a mere clerk.”

This sarcastic condemnation was spoken by Miss Lilian Dale to her sister Isabella, and referred to a gentleman with whom we shall have much concern in these pages.  I do not say that Mr Crosbie will be our hero, seeing that that part in the drama will be cut up, as it were, into fragments.  Whatever of the magnificent may be produced will be diluted and apportioned out in very moderate quantities among two or more, probably among three or four, young gentlemen—­to none of whom will be vouchsafed the privilege of much heroic action.

“I don’t know what you call a mere clerk, Lily.  Mr Fanfaron is a mere barrister, and Mr Boyce is a mere clergyman.”  Mr Boyce was the vicar of Allington, and Mr Fanfaron was a lawyer who had made his way over to Allington during the last assizes.  “You might as well say that Lord De Guest is a mere earl.”

“So he is—­only a mere earl.  Had he ever done anything except have fat oxen, one wouldn’t say so.  You know what I mean by a mere clerk?  It isn’t much in a man to be in a public office, and yet Mr Crosbie gives himself airs.”

“You don’t suppose that Mr Crosbie is the same as John Eames,” said Bell, who, by her tone of voice, did not seem inclined to undervalue the qualifications of Mr Crosbie.  Now John Eames was a young man from Guestwick, who had been appointed to a clerkship in the Income-tax office, with eighty pounds a year, two years ago.

“Then Johnny Eames is a mere clerk,” said Lily; “and Mr Crosbie is—­ After all, Bell, what is Mr Crosbie, if he is not a mere clerk?  Of course, he is older than John Eames; and, as he has been longer at it, I suppose he has more than eighty pounds a year.”