Devonshire acres. Aunt Penelope was empowered to leave them to whom
she pleased; and though it was thought in Eaton Square that she must,
as a matter of course, leave them to one of the family, nevertheless a
little cousinly intercourse might make the thing more certain. I will
not say that this was the sole cause of such a visit, but in these days
a visit was to be made by Captain Broughton to his aunt. Now Captain
John Broughton was the second son of Alfonso Broughton, of Clapham Park
and Eaton Square, Member of Parliament, and Lord of the aforesaid
Government Board.

"And what do you mean to do with him?" Patience Woolsworthy asked of
Miss Le Smyrger when that lady walked over from the Combe to say that
her nephew John was to arrive on the following morning.

"Do with him? Why I shall bring him over here to talk to your father."

"He'll be too fashionable for that; and papa won't trouble his head
about him if he finds that he doesn't care for Dartmoor."

"Then he may fall in love with you, my dear."

"Well, yes; there's that resource at any rate, and for your sake I dare
say I should be more civil to him than papa. But he'll soon get tired
of making love, and what you'll do then I cannot imagine."

That Miss Woolsworthy felt no interest in the coming of the Captain I
will not pretend to say. The advent of any stranger with whom she
would be called on to associate must be matter of interest to her in
that secluded place; and she was not so absolutely unlike other young
ladies that the arrival of an unmarried young man would be the same to