The Belton Estate

ently, but that lady had kept her promise-almost to Clara's disappointment. For she-though she had in truth disliked the proposition that her cousin

on was to eat, and especially about the wine that Belton was to drink. What was he to do for wine? The stock of wine in the cellars at Belton Castle was, no doubt, very low. The squire himself drank a glass or two of port daily, and had some remnant of his old treasures by him, which might perhaps last him his time; and occasionally there came small supplies of sherry from the grocer at Taunton; but Mr. Amedroz pretended to think that Will Belton would want champagne and claret

had expressed her approbation, saying that she hoped it would lead to good results. Of what good results could her aunt be thinking? The one probable good result would surely be this-that relations so nearly connected should kn

ame the hour of his arrival, and was manifestly intending to make the most of the grievance should he not present himself before six;-but this indulgence was cut short by the sound of the gig wheels. Mr. Amedroz and his daughter were sitting in a small drawing-room, which looked out to the front of the house and he, seated in h

es, a large mouth, teeth almost too perfect and a well-formed nose, with thick short brown hair and small whiskers which came but half-way down his cheeks-a decidedly handsome man wit

y at Mr. Folliott's?" he said. His voice was clear, and rath

ittle girl," sai

hat's twenty years

to remind me of

't I? W

shows how ve

at signifies. How well I remember this room;-and

rd eye, perhaps,"

the corns of Mr. Amedroz, but he did not perceive it. And when the squire muttered something about a tenant, and the inconvenience of keeping land in his own hands, Belton wou

she contrived that this should take place within half an hour after his arrival, as he went through the hall up to his room. "Mr. Belton," she said, "I'm sur

tered since I

, the fact is, that we are not so well off as we used to be, and

o?

of you, your coming a

e three times

as you find us, you know. T

. One couldn't write and ask such a question;

it out alrea

-not for young people. But it isn't comfortable when a man gets

him. He has had to let the park to Mr. Sto

talked about, how

't be m

e if I ain't. And I'll tell you what, I'll be kind to

Belton was looking full into her face, and sa

ther would have called indelicate and heartless, as though they gave him no effort, and placing himself at once almost in a position of ascendency. This Clara had not intended. She had thought that her farmer cousin, in spite of the superiority of his prospects

re ver

I have looked you up here for nothing. Blood is thicker than water, and you have nobody now

ow money on his life

a stranger of me. Anything does for me. Lord bless you! if you were to see how I rough it sometimes

he would be expected to change his coat, for her father would have been annoyed had his guest sat down to dinner without such c

She was his cousin, and cousins of course addressed each other in that way. Clara's quick eye immediately saw her father's slight gesture of dismay, but Belton caught nothing of this. The squire took an early opportunity of calling him Mr. Belton with some little peculiarity of expres

in the parlour. Clara had been there some time, but had not seen her cousin. He entered the room immediately after her father, bringi

n find me in bed, summer or winter. What's the use

," said Clara; "whether one h

good with land, must be out early. The grass will grow of itself at

o much good to the grass here

had now seated himself at the breakfast-table, and was playing with his knife

g about it, if you pl

t like it; but upon my word you ought

do you mean

one who would put stock in it,-not go on cutting it year after year, and putting nothing

to put stock on the land,

roz, I'll do it myself." By this time he had helped himself to two large slices of cold mutton,

the question,"

the poor old man was absolutely unable to keep pace with him,-even to the repeating of his wish that the matter should be talked of no further. "I'll tell you what I'll do, now," continued Belton. "There's altogether, outside the palings and in

Plaistow Hall

I've counted it up, and it would just cost me a thousand pounds to stock this place. I should come and l

f not doing as well for himself as others could do for him. He did not wish to make any change,-although he remembered at the moment his anger with Farmer Stovey respecting the haycarts. He did not desire

I'll give him. He can't make money out of the place. He hasn't got means to stock it, and then see the wages that hay-maki

The twenty pounds had already been paid to Stovey, and the transaction was complete. Mr. Amedroz sat in his chair bewildered, dismayed-and, as he himself declared,-shocked, quite shocked, at the precipitancy of the young man. It might be for the best. He didn't know. He didn't feel at all sure. But such hur

be a much better arrangement

ot everythi

elton, our own cousin, about

now, and there is no use in complaining. I must

about the grounds, and had made plans, and counted up capabilities, and calculated his profit and los

Amedroz, with some affectation of dignity in his manner.

I was acting as your own-bailiff." "Son," he was going to say, but he remembered

ave anything done,

o, to keep in the cattle, and leave other things as they a

out, and had already tied on

s," said he, as soon as they we

when you remember all

e least; and I don't wonder

he dislikes y

al that he should dislike me. But I'll live it down. You see if I don't. I'll make him so

nderful man,

se you must do as you please about that. If I can ma

s; then

it? Only one likes to be friendly with one's frien

egun you had

t as different as possible before this time next year. Why, there's lots of timber that ought to come out of the plantation; and there's places where the roots want stubbing up horribly. These things always pay fo

y father, even though it

won't tread on his toes. Where d

buy

ovey, I

tovey. It goes a

u a cow. It shall be a little present from me to you." He said nothing of the more important present which this would entail u

ink we'd better not a

made no such promise as to you. We'll have a cow before I'm many days older. What a pretty

s pre

te flat. And there is a great dike, twenty feet wide, oozing through it,-just oozing, you know; and lots of little dikes, at ri

drawn! I should commit

ad so much to

is the h

gables, tiled all over, and large square windows set in stone. The house is good enough, only

hat's so

so that the whole thing must have been different once, and there must have been a great court-yard. In Elizabeth's time Plaistow Manor was rather a swell place,

it you

nt for his part. He's a clergyman you know, and

ve alone in th

. You've heard of

oor sickly creature, with a twisted spine and a hump ba

. "I hope she's better than she

nes he kicked on one side, and how invariably he noted any defect in the fences. But still he talked of his sister, swearing that she was as good as gold, and at last wiping away the tears from his eyes as he described her maladies. "And yet I believe she is better off than any of us," he said, "because she is so good." Clara began to wish that she had called him Will from the beginning, because she liked him so much. He was just the man to have

s carrying herself with her cousin. She came at once to the wicket, and there she was introduced by Clara to Mr. Belton. Mr. Belton as he made his bow muttered something awkwardly, and seemed to lose his self-possession for the moment. Mrs. Askerton was very gracious to him, and

el Askerton?"

a French novel, as usual. It's the only thing he ever do

at all, and when I

who has a pursuit

y bread. A man has not much time for French novels with a thousand acres

always at work

t, Mrs. Askerton. Th

a spor

in the country a

'll be delighted, I'm sure, to see you if you are here some time in September. But

t shouldn't be as

he has got a fair head

sily kept if people kne

eeper, and has gone to a great deal

lton; "and so I will be,-or rathe

perhaps he thought that she assumed too many of the airs of proprietorship becau

say you'll turn us out," s

ody out or in," said he. "I'v

e her departure. Belton, as he went, lifted his hat from his head, and Clara could not keep herself from thinking tha

would come. "And I shall be so happy to see Mr. Belton if he will call before he leaves you." At this Belton again raised his hat from his head, and mu

my friend," said Clara, laughing, as soo

badly. At first I took her for somebody else I knew slightly ever

the other pe

ember that at the

on was a Mis

ndependently of that, they can't be the sa

name of Berdmore pronounced, or had seen it written, or had in some shape come across the name in Mrs. Askerton's presence; or at any rate somewhere on the premises occupied by that

that, I knew very little of him either. She was a fast-going girl, and his friends were very s

erton like the f

omething about this woman that put me in mind of the other. Vigo was her name; now I reco

e was Ol

me trumpery thirty or forty pounds a year, and then they seem to think that it's almost the same as though they owned the property themselves. I've known a man talk of

didn't think you c

ck's up, it is up! B

be up while you rem

where it stood yesterday; and he promised he'd have it home before t

he had a companion, was Mrs. Askerton; but Mrs. Askerton did not like real walking. She would creep about the grounds for an hour or so, and even such companionship as that was better to Clara than absolute solitude; bu

dined at five," he replie

deed,-indeed

s for ye

make it six while M

t must be, I sup

t my dinner, sir, at any hour that you'll undertake to give it m

been expressed by her cousin. Mr. Amedroz of course made this an occasion for further grumbling, suggesting that Belton wanted to get the shooting for himself as he had got the

lton doesn't mean tha

hat he means,"

treat Colonel Askerton

m just as I like,