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What she might say of you if you were not heir to an Earldom I haven't asked her!' Her little spurt of temper subsided; she gave a rueful laugh, and said: 'Oh, dear, how very improper of me to talk like that about her! Let me assure you that I do not d o so to anyone but you! And how shocking it is that I should be glad she is feeling not quite the thing today, and doesn't mean to leave her room! I do hope Grimshaw can be trusted not to tell her you have been here!'
       'Well, it may be shocking, but I don't scruple to tell you that I was even more glad to learn that she wasn't receiving visitors!' said the Viscount candidly. 'She makes me feel I'm some sort of a heartless loose-screw, for she's got a way of sighing, and smiling sadly and reproachfully at me when I accord her the common decencies of civility.' He drew out his watch, and said: 'I must be off, Hetta. I'm on my way to Hazelfield, and my aunt won't like it if I arrive at midnight.'
       Henrietta rose from the seat, and accompanied him towards the house. 'Oh, are you going to visit your Aunt Emborough? Pray give her my kind regards!'
       'I will,' he promised. 'And do you – if Grimshaw should have disclosed my presence here! – say all that is proper to your mama! My compliments, and my – er – regret that I should have paid her a morning visit when she was indisposed!' He bestowed a fraternal hug upon her, kissed her cheek, and said: 'Goodbye, my dear! Don't do anything gooseish, will you?'
       'No, and don't you do anything gooseish either!' she retorted.
       'What, under my Aunt Sophronia's eye? I shouldn't dare!' he tossed at her over his shoulder, as he strode off towards the stableyard.

Three

    Lady Emborough was Lord Wroxton's sole surviving sister. In appearance they were much alike, but although persons of nervous disposition thought that the resemblance was very much more than skin-deep they were misled by her loud voice and downright manners. She was certainly inclined to manage the affairs of anyone weak-minded enough to submit to her auto cracy, but she was inspired quite as much by a conviction that such persons were incapable of managing their own affairs as by her belief in her own infallibility, and she never bore anyone the least malice for withstanding her. She was thought by some to be odiously overbearing, but not by those who had sought her help in a moment of need. Under her rough manners she had a warm heart, and an inexhaustible store of kindness. Her husband was a quiet man of few words who for the most part allowed her to rule the household as she chose, a circumstance which frequently led the uninitiated to think that he was henpecked. But those more intimately acquainted with her knew that her lord could check her with no more than a look, and an almost imperceptible shake of his head. She took these silent reproofs in perfectly good part, often saying, with a goodnatured laugh: 'Oh, there is Emborough frowning me down, so not another word will I utter on the subject!'
       She greeted her nephew characteristically, saying: 'So here you are at last, Desford! You're late – and don't tell me one of your horses lost a shoe, or you broke a trace, because I shan't believe any of your farradiddles!'
       'Now, don't bullock poor Des, Mama!' her eldest son, a stalwart young man who bore all the appearance of a country squire, admonished her.
       'Much he cares!' she said, laughing heartily.
       'Of course I don't!' Desford said, kissing her hand. 'Do you take me for a rabbit-sucker, ma'am? None of my horses lost a shoe, and I did not break a trace, or suffer any accident whatso ever, and if you mean to tell me I've kept you waiting for dinner I shan't, of course, be so disrespectful as to accuse you of telling farradiddles, but I shall think it! The thing was I called at Inglehurst on my way, and stayed chatting to Hetta for rather longer than I had intended. She told me to give you her kind regards, by the