Others spoke out more plainly.  Stories were afloat or orgies ending in the gallant Colonel being under the supper table, a thing only too common, but not in the house of a solitary lady who had only lately quitted the carousers.  Half the dependants on the estate were complaining of the guest’s swaggering overbearing treatment of themselves, or of his insolence to their wives or daughters; and Betty lived in a dreadful unnamed terror lest he should offer some impertinence to her father which the veteran’s honour might not brook.  However, there was something in the old soldier’s dignity and long service that kept the arrogance of the younger man in check, and repressed all bluster towards him.

Demands for money were, as usual, made, but the settlement of accounts was deferred till the arrival of Hargrave, the family man of business, who came by coach to Bath, and then rode across to Carminster.  The Major dined that day at the Great House, and came home early, with something so strange and startled about his looks that Betty feared that her worst misgivings were realised.  It was a relief to hear him say, “Come hither, Betty, I want a word with you.”  At least it was no duel!

“What is it, dear sir?” she asked, as she shut his study door.  “Is it come at last?  Must we quit this place?”

“No, I could bear that better, but what do you think she asks of me now?—­to give my little Aurelia, my beautiful darling, to that madman in the dark!”

“Oh!” exclaimed Betty, in a strange tone of discovery.  “May I inquire what you said?”

“I said—­I scarce know what I said.  I declared it monstrous, and not to be thought of for a moment; and then she went on in her fashion that would wile a bird off a bush, declaring that no doubt the proposal was a shock, but if I would turn the matter over, I should see it was for the dear child’s advantage.  Belamour dotes on her, and after being an old man’s darling for a few years, she may be free in her prime, with an honourable name and fortune.”

“I dare say.  As if one could not see through the entire design.  My Lady would call her sister-in-law to prevent her being daughter-in-law!”

“That fancy has had no aliment, and must long ago have died out.”

“Listen to Nurse Dove on that matter.”

“Women love to foster notions of that sort.”

“Nay, sir, you believe, as I do, that the poor child was conveyed to Bowstead in order that the youth might lose sight of her, and since he proves refractory to the match intended for him, this further device is found for destroying any possible hope on his part.”

“I cannot say what may actuate my Lady, but if Amyas Belamour be the man I knew, and as the child’s own letters paint him, he is not like to lend himself to any such arrangement.”

“Comes the offer from him, or is it only a scheme of my Lady’s?”

“He never writes more than a signature, but Hargrave is empowered to make proposals to me, very handsome proposals too, were not the bare idea intolerable.”