第33章 CHAPTER VII(2)

Then the two women had a ride in the park, or wandered in the garden, or sat reading, or sewing, or writing in some of the sweet, fair rooms. Many visitors soon appeared, and there were calls to return and courtesies to accept. Among these visitors the Tyrrel-Rawdons were the earliest. The representatives of that family were Nicholas Rawdon and his wife Lydia. Nicholas Rawdon was a large, stout man, very arrogant, very complete, very alert for this world, and not caring much about the other. He was not pleased at Judge Rawdon's visit, but thought it best to be cousinly until his cousin interfered with his plans--"rights" he called them--"and then!" and his "THEN" implied a great deal, for Nicholas Rawdon was a man incapable of conceiving the idea of loving an enemy.

His wife was a pleasant, garrulous woman, who interested Ethel very much. Her family was her chief topic of conversation. She had two daughters, one of whom had married a baronet, "a man with money and easy to manage"; and the other, "a rich cotton lord in Manchester.""They haven't done badly," she said confidentially, "and it's a great thing to get girls off your hands early. Adelaide and Martha were well educated and suitable, but, "she added with a glow of pride, "you should see my John Thomas. He's manager of the mill, and he loves the mill, and he knows every pound of warp or weft that comes in or goes out of the mill; and what his father would do without him, I'm sure I don't know. And he is a member of Parliament, too--Radical ticket. Won over Mostyn. Wiped Mostyn out pretty well. That was a thing to do, wasn't it?""I suppose Mr. Mostyn was the Conservative candidate?""You may be sure of that. But my John Thomas doesn't blame him for it--the gentry have to be Conservatives. John Thomas said little against his politics; he just set the crowd laughing at his ways--his dandified ways.