became his wish to secure her for his daughter-in-law. He was
inexpressibly flattered by her preference for his company: ever at
hand to share his customary walks, his kindly visits to the cottages
of peasants or the homesteads of petty tenants; wherein both were sure
to hear many a simple anecdote of Master Kenelm in his childhood,
anecdotes of whim or good-nature, of considerate pity or reckless
courage.

Throughout all these varieties of thought or feeling in the social
circle around her, Lady Chillingly preserved the unmoved calm of her
dignified position. A very good woman certainly, and very ladylike.
No one could detect a flaw in her character, or a fold awry in her
flounce. She was only, like the gods of Epicurus, too good to trouble
her serene existence with the cares of us simple mortals. Not that
she was without a placid satisfaction in the tribute which the world
laid upon her altars; nor was she so supremely goddess-like as to soar
above the household affections which humanity entails on the dwellers
and denizens of earth. She liked her husband as much as most elderly
wives like their elderly husbands. She bestowed upon Kenelm a liking
somewhat more warm, and mingled with compassion. His eccentricities
would have puzzled her, if she had allowed herself to be puzzled: it
troubled her less to pity them. She did not share her husband's
desire for his union with Cecilia. She thought that her son would
have a higher place in the county if he married Lady Jane, the Duke of
Clanville's daughter; and "that is what he ought to do," said Lady
Chillingly to herself. She entertained none of the fear that had
induced Sir Peter to extract from Kenelm the promise not to pledge his
hand before he had received his father's consent. That the son of
Lady Chillingly should make a /mesalliance/, however crotchety he
might be in other respects, was a thought that it would have so