he read no books, and this, on the whole, is true, but nevertheless he did know something about the history of the early part of the century, and he was rather fond at political gatherings of making some allusion to Mr. Fox.  His father had sat in the House of Commons when Fox was there, and had sternly opposed the French war.  I don’t suppose that anybody not actually in it—­no Londoner certainly—­can understand the rigidity of the bonds which restricted county society when I was young, and for aught I know may restrict it now.  There was with us one huge and dark exception to the general uniformity.  The earl had broken loose, had ruined his estate, had defied decorum and openly lived with strange women at home and in Paris, but this black background did but set off the otherwise universal adhesion to the Church and to authorised manners, an adhesion tempered and rendered tolerable by port wine.  It must not, however, be supposed that human nature was different from the human nature of to-day or a thousand years ago.  There were then, even as there were a thousand years ago, and are to-day, small, secret doors, connected with mysterious staircases, by which access was gained to freedom; and men and women, inmates of castles with walls a yard thick, and impenetrable portcullises, sought those doors and descended those stairs night and day.  But nobody knew, or if we did know, the silence was profound.  The broad-shouldered, yellow-haired Whig squire, had a wife who was the opposite of him.  She came from a distant part of the country, and had been educated in France.  She was small, with black hair, and yet with blue eyes.  She spoke French perfectly, was devoted to music, read French books, and, although she was a constant attendant at church, and gave no opportunity whatever for the slightest suspicion, the matrons of the circle in which she moved were never quite happy about her.  This was due partly to her knowledge of French, and partly to her having no children.  Anything more about her I do not know.  She was beyond us, and although I have seen her often enough I never spoke to her.  Butts, however, managed to become a visitor at the squire’s house.  Fancy my going to the squire’s!  But Butts did, was accepted there, and even dined there with a parson, and two or three half-pay officers.  The squire never called on Butts.  That was an understood thing, nor did Mrs. Butts accompany her husband.  That also was an understood thing.  It was strange that Butts could tolerate and even court such a relationship.  Most men would scorn with the scorn of a personal insult an invitation to a house from which their wives were expressly excluded.  The squire’s lady and Clem became great friends.  She discovered that his mother was a Frenchwoman, and this was a bond between them.  She discovered also that Clem was artistic, that he was devotedly fond of music, that he could draw a little, paint a little, and she believed