“Yes, and the last of the gentlemen, when the place was ate up of a mortgage, lived in a bit of a cottage by the roadside, and was just as proud and grand as if he had forty servants. This Ottinge is a mighty queer quarrelling sort o’ place, as you will soon see for yourself. Last year a parson come, when Mr. Morven was in Switzerland with the General--a very gay, pleasant young man, a-visitin’ everywhere, and talkin’ to every one, and amusin’ the parish, and gettin’ up cricket, and concerts, so when he left they gathered up to make him a present, and bought him a lovely clock (as he preferred to a bit of a ink-bottle); but it just shows up Ottinge! there was so much wicked jealousy and ill-feelin’ that there was no one to _give_ it to him--you see, one wouldn’t let the other!--and he’d never have got it at all, only, at the last, they stuck in a child--a little girl, as no one wanted to get the better of--and so that settled it, but it may give ye _some_ idea of the place.” “Ye see my mother hasn’t a good word for it,” put in Tom; “but I’m Ottinge, and was born here.” “As to the gentlefolk,” continued Mrs. Hogben almost as glibly as if she were reading aloud, “there’s the doctor and his wife. She is gayish, and great at theatricals and games--no harm, though. Ay, ’tis a dull place for young folk, and only fit for some to come and end their days. There’s the Woolcocks of Westmere Park--terrible rich--they bought the Park when the Davenants were broke, as I tell’d ye. They keep a crowd of servants, and three motors. There’s mister and missus, and a son and two daughters--one of them’s married. They give a fair lot of employment too--but still, folks ’ud rayther have the old fam’ly.” “My mother goes round telling of folk here and there, and she’s left out the one that matters _most_, that starts everything in the village, and is the prettiest girl--bar one--in ten parishes--and that’s Miss Aurea!” “Why, Miss Aurea, of course, she’s not to be overlooked,” said Mrs. Hogben, “not nowhere--Miss Parrett’s niece, and the parson’s daughter; but she’s not here now, she’s a-stoppin’ up in London with her father’s brother the General--often she does be there--the only child to go round in three families.” Wynyard said to himself that he was actually better posted up in village gossip than Mrs. Hogben; she did not know, as _he_ did, that Miss Aurea had returned home! “She manages her aunt wonderful, that she do; indeed, she manages most things.” “She’s awful taken up with settling the Manor House and the garden,” added Tom; “she has a lucky hand, and a real love for flowers.” “Ay, and folk do say that Woolcock of Westmere, the only son, has a real love for _her_,” supplemented Mrs. Hogben, as she rose and pushed back her chair; “it would be a sensible thing to wed old family to good money.”