have much of a welcome at Steignton! If I were a woman to wager as men
do, I 'd stake a thousand pounds to five on her never stepping across the
threshold of Steignton. All very well in London, and that place he hires
up at Marlow. He respects our home. That 's how I know my brother
Rowsley still keeps a sane man. A fortune on it!--and so says Mr.
Eglett. Any reasonable person must think it. He made a fool of some
Hampton-Evey at Madrid, if he went through any ceremony--and that I
doubt. But she and old (what do they call her?) may have insisted upon
the title, as much as they could. He sixty; she under twenty, I'm told.
Pagnell 's the name. That aunt of a good-looking young woman sees a
noble man of sixty admiring her five feet seven or so--she's tall--of
marketable merchandise, and she doesn't need telling that at sixty he'll
give the world to possess the girl. But not his family honour! He stops
at that. Why? Lord Ormont 's made of pride! He'll be kind to her,
he'll be generous, he won't forsake her; she'll have her portion in his
will, and by the course of things in nature, she'll outlive him and
marry, and be happy, I hope. Only she won't enter Steignton. You
remember what I say. You 'll live when I 'm gone. It 's the thirst of
her life to be mistress of Steignton. Not she!--though Lord Ormont would
have us all open our doors to her; mine too, now he 's about it. He sets
his mind on his plan, and he forgets rights and dues--everything; he must
have it as his will dictates. That 's how he made such a capital
soldier. You know the cavalry leader he was. If they'd given him a
field in Europe! His enemies admit that. Twelve! and my clock's five
minutes or more slow. What can Rowsley be doing?'

She rattled backward on the scene at Steignton, and her brother's
handsome preservation of his dignity 'stood it like the king he is!' and
to the Morsfield-May encounter, which had prevented another; and Mrs. May
was rolled along in the tide, with a hint of her good reason for liking