“As the relations between the two families have evidently been strained for years,” Lord Dunholm said, “it is interesting to hear of the sudden advent of the sister.  It seems to point to reconciliation.  And you say the girl is an unusual person.

“From what one hears, she would be unusual if she were an English girl who had spent her life on an English estate.  That an American who is making her first visit to England should seem to see at once the practical needs of a neglected place is a thing to wonder at.  What can she know about it, one thinks.  But she apparently does know.  They say she has made no mistakes—­even with the village people.  She is managing, in one way or another, to give work to every man who wants it.  Result, of course—­unbounded rustic enthusiasm.”

Lord Dunholm laughed between the soothing whiffs of his cigar.

“How clever of her!  And what sensible good feeling!  Yes—­yes!  She evidently has learned things somewhere.  Perhaps New York has found it wise to begin to give young women professional training in the management of English estates.  Who knows?  Not a bad idea.”

It was the rustic enthusiasm, Westholt explained, which had in a manner spread her fame.  One heard enlightening and illustrative anecdotes of her.  He related several well worth hearing.  She had evidently a sense of humour and unexpected perceptions.

“One detail of the story of old Doby’s meerschaum,” Westholt said, “pleased me enormously.  She managed to convey to him—­without hurting his aged feelings or overwhelming him with embarrassment—­that if he preferred a clean churchwarden or his old briarwood, he need not feel obliged to smoke the new pipe.  He could regard it as a trophy.  Now, how did she do that without filling him with fright and confusion, lest she might think him not sufficiently grateful for her present?  But they tell me she did it, and that old Doby is rapturously happy and takes the meerschaum to bed with him, but only smokes it on Sundays—­sitting at his window blowing great clouds when his neighbours are coming from church.  It was a clever girl who knew that an old fellow might secretly like his old pipe best.”

“It was a deliciously clever girl,” said Lord Dunholm.  “One wants to know and make friends with her.  We must drive over and call.  I confess, I rather congratulate myself that Anstruthers is not at home.”

“So do I,” Westholt answered.  “One wonders a little how far he and his sister-in-law will ‘foregather’ when he returns.  He’s an unpleasant beggar.”

A few days later Mrs. Brent, returning from a call on Mrs. Charley Jenkins, was passed by a carriage whose liveries she recognised half way up the village street.  It was the carriage from Dunholm Castle.  Lord and Lady Dunholm and Lord Westholt sat in it.  They were, of course, going to call at the Court.  Miss Vanderpoel was beginning to draw people.  She naturally would.  She would be likely to make