Martin, reddening, said: “I see what you are at! I’m not to be blamed if my father preferred me to you!”

“No, you are to be felicitated,” said Gervase.

“My lord! Mr. Martin!” said the Chaplain imploringly.

Neither brother, hot brown eyes meeting cool blue ones, gave any sign of having heard him, but the uncomfortable interlude was brought to a close by the entrance of the butler, announcing that dinner was served.

There were two dining-rooms at Stanyon, one of which was only used when the family dined alone. Both were situated on the first floor of the Castle, at the end of the east wing, and were reached by way of the Grand Stairway, the Italian Saloon, and a broad gallery, known as the Long Drawing-room. Access to them was also to be had through two single doors, hidden by screens, but these led only to the precipitous stairs which descended to the kitchens. The family dining-room was rather smaller than the one used for formal occasions, but as its mahogany table was made to accommodate some twenty persons without crowding it seemed very much too large for the small party assembled in it. The Dowager established herself at the foot of the table, and directed her son and the Chaplain to the places laid on her either side. Martin, who had gone unthinkingly to the head of the table, recollected the change in his circumstances, muttered something indistinguishable, and moved away from it. The Dowager waved Miss Morville to the seat on the Earl’s right; and Theodore took the chair opposite to her. Since the centre of the table supported an enormous silver epergne, presented to the Earl’s grandfather by the East India Company, and composed of a temple, surrounded by palms, elephants, tigers, sepoys, and palanquins, tastefully if somewhat improbably arranged, the Earl and his stepmother were unable to see one another, and conversation between the two ends of the table was impossible. Nor did it flourish between neighbours, since the vast expanse of napery separating them gave them a sense of isolation it was difficult to overcome. The Dowager indeed, maintained, in her penetrating voice, a flow of very uninteresting small-talk, which consisted largely of exact explanations of the various relationships in which she stood to every one of the persons she mentioned; but conversation between St. Erth, his cousin and Miss Morville was of a desultory nature. By the time Martin had three times craned his neck to address some remark to Theo, obscured from his view by the epergne, the Earl had reached certain decisions which he lost no time in putting into force. No sooner had the Dowager borne Miss Morville away to the Italian Saloon than he said: “Abney!”

“My lord?”

“Has this table any leaves?”

“It has many, my lord!” said the butler, staring at him.

“Remove them, if you please.”

“Remove them, my lord?”

“Not just at once, of course, but before I sit at the table again. Also that thing!”

“The epergne, my lord?” Abney faltered. “Where — where would your lordship desire it to be put?”

The Earl regarded it thoughtfully. “A home question, Abney. Unless you know of a dark cupboard, perhaps, where it could be safely stowed away?”

“My mother,” stated Martin, ready for a skirmish, “has a particular fondness for that piece!”

“How very fortunate!” returned St. Erth. “Do draw your chair to this end of the table, Martin! and you too, Mr. Clowne! Abney, have the epergne conveyed to her ladyship’s sitting-room!”

Theo looked amused, but said under his breath: “Gervase, for God’s sake — !”

“You will not have that thing put into my mother’s room!” exclaimed Martin, a good deal startled.

“Don’t you think she would like to have it? If she has a particular fondness for it, I should not wish to deprive her of it.”

“She will wish it to be left where it has always stood, and so I tell you! And if I know Mama,” he added, with relish, “I’ll wager that’s what will happen!”

“Oh, I shouldn’t do that!” Gervase said. “You see, you don’t know me, and it is never wise to bet against a dark horse.”

“I suppose that you think, just because you’re St. Erth now, that you may turn Stanyon upside down, if you choose!” growled Martin, a little nonplussed.

“Well, yes,” replied Gervase. “I do think it, but you must not let it distress you, for I really shan’t quite do that!”

“We shall see what Mama has to say!” was all Martin could think of to retort.

The Dowager’s comments, when the fell tidings were presently divulged to her, were at once comprehensive and discursive, and culminated in an unwise announcement that Abney would take his orders from his mistress.

“Oh, I hope he will not!” said Gervase. “I should be very reluctant to dismiss a servant who has been for so many years employed in the family!” He smiled down into the Dowager’s astonished face, and added, in his gentle way: “But I have too great a dependence on your sense of propriety, ma’am, to suppose that you would issue any orders at Stanyon which ran counter to mine.”

Everyone but Miss Morville, who was studying the Fashion Notes in the Ladies’ periodical, waited with suspended breath for the climax to this engagement. They were disappointed, or relieved, according to their several dispositions, when the Dowager said, after a short silence, pregnant with passion: “You will do as you please in your own home, St. Erth! Pray do not hesitate to inform me if you desire me to remove to the Dower House immediately!”

“Ah, no! I should be sorry to see you do so, ma’am!” replied Gervase. “Such a house as Stanyon would be a sad place without a mistress!” Her face snowed no sign of relenting, and he added, in a coaxing tone: “Do not be vexed with me! Must we quarrel? Indeed, I do not wish to stand upon bad terms with you!”

“I can assure you that no quarrel between us will be of my seeking,” said the Dowager austerely. “A very odd thing it would be if I were to be picking quarrels with my stepson! Pray be so good as to apprise me, in the future, of the arrangements which you desire to alter at Stanyon!”

“Thank you!” Gervase said, bowing.

The meekness in his voice made his cousin’s brows draw together a little; but Martin evidently considered that his mother had lost the first bout, for he uttered a disgusted exclamation, and flung out of the room in something very like a tantrum.

The Dowager, ignoring, in a lofty spirit, the entire incident, then desired Theo to ring for a card-table to be set up, saying that she had no doubt St. Erth would enjoy a rubber of whist. If Gervase did not look as though these plans for his entertainment were to his taste, his compliant disposition led him to acquiesce docilely in them, and, when a four was presently made up, to submit with equanimity to having his play ruthlessly criticized by his stepmother. His cousin and the Chaplain, after a little argument with Miss Morville, who, however, was resolute in refusing to take a hand, were the other two players; and the game was continued until the tea-tray was brought in at ten o’clock. The Dowager, who had maintained an unwearied commentary throughout on her own and the other three players’ skill (or want of it), the fall of the cards, the rules which governed her play, illustrated by maxims laid down by her father which gave Gervase a very poor opinion of that deceased nobleman’s mental ability, then stated that no one would care to begin another rubber, and rose from the table, and disposed herself in her favourite chair beside the fire. Miss Morville dispensed tea and coffee, a circumstance which made the Earl wonder if she were, after all, one of his stepmother’s dependents. At first glance, he had assumed her to be perhaps a poor relation, or a hired companion; but since the Dowager treated her, if not with any distinguishing attention, at least with perfect civility, he had come to the conclusion that she must be a guest at Stanyon. He was not well-versed in the niceties of female costume, but it seemed to him that she was dressed with propriety, and even a certain quiet elegance. Her gown, which was of white sarsenet, with a pink body, and long sleeves, buttoned tightly round her wrists, was unadorned by the frills of lace or knots of floss with which young ladies of fashion usually embellished their dresses. On the other hand, it was cut low across her plump bosom, in a way which would scarcely have been tolerated in a hired companion; and she wore a very pretty ornament suspended on a gold chain round her throat. Nor was there any trace of obsequiousness in her manners. She inaugurated no conversation, but when she was addressed she answered with composure, and readily. A pink riband, threaded through them, kept her neat curls in place. These were mouse-coloured, and very simply arranged. Her countenance was pleasing without being beautiful, her best feature being a pair of dark eyes, well-opened and straight-gazing. Her figure was trim, but sadly lacking in height, and she was rather short-necked. She employed no arts to attract; the Earl thought her dull.

Family prayers succeeded tea, after which the Dowager withdrew with Miss Morville, charging Theo to conduct St. Erth to his bedchamber. “Not,” she said magnanimously, “that I wish to dictate to you when you should go to bed, for I am sure you may do precisely as you wish, but no doubt you are tired after your journey.”

It did not seem probable that a journey of fifty miles (for the Earl had travelled to Stanyon only from Penistone Hall), in a luxurious chaise, could exhaust a man inured to the rigours of an arduous campaign, but Gervase agreed to it with his usual amiability, bade his stepmother goodnight, and tucked a hand in Theo’s arm, saying: “Well, lead me to bed! Where have they put me?”