"You have done more towards beautifying the cottage than I could have hoped to do," said Mr. Juxon, leaning back in his chair and resting one hand on Stamboul's great head. "It was very pretty of itself," answered Mrs. Goddard, "and fortunately it is not very big, or my things would look lost in it." "I should not say that--you have so many beautiful things. They seem to suit the place so well. I am sure you will never think of taking them away." "Not if I can help it--I am too glad to be quiet." "You have travelled a great deal, Mrs. Goddard?" asked the squire. "No--not exactly that--only a little, after all. I have not been to Constantinople for instance," she added looking at the hound Mr. Juxon had brought from the East. "You are indeed a traveller." "I have travelled all my life," said the squire, indifferently, as though the subject of his wanderings did not interest him. "From what little I have seen of Billingsfield I fancy you will find all the quiet you could wish, here. Really, I realise that at my own gate I must come to you for information. What sort of man is that excellent rector down there, whom I met last night?" The squire's tone became more confidential as he put the question. "Well--he is not a rector, to begin with," answered Mrs. Goddard with a smile, "he is the vicar, and he is a most good man, whom I have always found most kind." "I can readily fancy that," said Mr. Juxon. "But his wife seems to be of the severe type." "No--she struck me so at first, too. I think it is only with strangers. She is such a motherly sort of woman, you do not know! She only has that little manner when you first meet her." "What a strange thing that is!" remarked the squire, looking at Mrs. Goddard. "The natural belief of English people in each other's depravity until they have had time to make acquaintance! And is there no one else here--no doctor--no doctor's wife?" "Not a soul," answered Mrs. Goddard. "There is a doctor, but the vicarage suspects him of free thought. He certainly never goes to church. He has no wife." "This is the most Arcadian retreat I ever was in. Upon my word, I am a very lucky man." "I suppose that it must be a relief when one has travelled so much," replied Mrs. Goddard. "Or suffered very much," added the squire, half unconsciously, looking at her sad face. "Yes," she answered. At that moment the door opened and Nellie entered the room, having successfully grappled with the inkstains. She went straight to the squire, and held out her hand, blushing a little, but looking very pretty. Then she saw the huge head of Stamboul who looked up at her with a ferociously agreeable canine smile, and thwacked the carpet with his tail as he sat; Nellie started back. "Oh, what a dog!" she exclaimed. But very soon she was on excellent terms with him; little Nellie was not timid, and Stamboul, who liked people who were not afraid of him and was especially fond of children, did his best to be amusing.