This letter came on a Sunday morning, and on that day she and Belton went to church together.  On the following morning early he was to start for Taunton.  At church they saw Mrs Askerton, whose attendance there was not very frequent.  It seemed, indeed, as though she had come with the express purpose of seeing Belton once during his visit.  As they left the church she bowed to him, and that was all they saw of each other throughout the month that he remained in Somersetshire.

‘Come to me tomorrow Clara,’ Mrs Askerton said as they all passed through the village together.  Clara muttered some reply, having not as yet made up her mind as to what her conduct must be.  Early on the next morning Will Belton went away, and again Clara got up to give him his breakfast.  On this occasion he had no thought of kissing her.  He went away without having had a word said to him about Mrs Askerton, and then Clara settled herself down to the work of deliberation.  What should she do with reference to the communication that had been made to her by Captain Aylmer?

CHAPTER XVII

AYLMER PARK

Aylmer Park and the great house of the Aylmers together formed an important and, as regarded in some minds, an imposing country residence.  The park was large, including some three or four hundred acres, and was peopled, rather thinly, by aristocratic deer.  It was surrounded by an aristocratic paling, and was entered, at three different points, by aristocratic lodges.  The sheep were more numerous than the deer, because Sir Anthony, though he had a large income, was not in very easy circumstances.  The ground was quite flat; and though there were thin belts of trees, and some ornamental timber here and there, it was not well wooded.  It had no special beauty of its own, and depended for its imposing qualities chiefly on its size, on its three sets of double lodges, and on its old established character as an important family place in the county.  The house was of stone, with a portico of Ionic columns which looked as though it hardly belonged of right to the edifice, and stretched itself out grandly, with two pretentious wings, which certainly gave it a just claim to be called a mansion.  It required a great many servants to keep it in order, and the numerous servants required an experienced duenna, almost as grand in appearance as Lady Aylmer herself, to keep them in order.  There was an open carriage and a close carriage, and a butler, and two footmen, and three gamekeepers, and four gardeners, and there was a coachman, and there were grooms, and sundry inferior men and boys about the place to do the work which the gardeners and game-keepers and grooms did not choose to do themselves.  And they all became fat, and lazy, and stupid, and respectable together; so that, as the reader will at once perceive, Aylmer Park was kept up in the proper English style.  Sir Anthony very often discussed with his steward