to accompany her to Belton, she had thanked him with a degree of
gratitude which had almost seemed to imply more of regard between them
than Clara would have acknowledged to exist. But in moments such as
those, soft words may be spoken and hands may be pressed without any of
that meaning which soft words and the grasping of hands generally carry
with them. As far as Taunton Captain Aylmer did go with Miss Amedroz,
and there they parted, he on his journey up to town, and she for her
father's desolate house at Belton.


CHAPTER II

THE HEIR PROPOSES TO VISIT HIS COUSIN

It was full summer at Belton, and the sweet scene of the new hay
filled the porch of the old house with fragrance, as Clara sat there
alone with her work. Immediately before the house door, between that
and the old tower, there stood one of Farmer Stovey's hay-carts, now
empty, with an old horse between the shafts looking as though he were
asleep in the sun. Immediately beyond the tower the men were loading
another cart, and the women and children were chattering as they raked
the scattered remnants up to the rows. tinder the shadow of the old
tower, but in sight of Clara as she sat in the porch, there lay the
small beer-barrels of the hay-makers, and three or four rakes were
standing erect against the old grey wall. It was now eleven o'clock,
and Clara was waiting for her father, who was not yet out of his room.
She had taken his breakfast to him in bed, as was her custom; for he
had fallen into idle ways, and the luxury of his bed was, of all his
remaining luxuries, the one that he liked the best. After a while he
came down to her, having an open letter in his hand. Clara saw that he