He called once in a way on Mrs. Piper of the Park; not often, for the thought of Bella had never been entirely agreeable to him after that conversation with Mrs. Dulcimer, in which he had, in a manner, found himself accused of having misled the young lady--or at any rate the young lady’s friends--as to his intentions. Now that she was married he had certainly no need to be uneasy on that score; but the recollection was an uncomfortable one, and he had a feeling about Mrs. Piper much too near dislike to be altogether Christian. Bella, in all the fulness of her new powers, was not a person to be easily kept at a distance. She wanted captives at her chariot wheels, to make her triumph complete, and she was particularly anxious that Cyril Culverhouse--who, according to her own idea, had scorned her in her poverty--should see and wonder at her splendour and elegance. She pestered him with invitations, all of which he found it impossible to decline without marked discourtesy, more especially as Mr. and Mrs. Piper were regular worshippers at the parish church, and liberal subscribers to all local charities. Bella had taken it into her head to receive her friends upon one particular day of the week. It was quite a new thing in Little Yafford--except for such a person as Lady Jane Gowry, who was a privileged eccentric--and had rather a foreign flavour. At the beginning of this institution visitors were slow to arrive, and Bella found it rather a dull business to sit waiting for them, looking her loveliest, in a dress just arrived from Paris, but with nobody but Mr. Piper to admire her. ‘You look uncommon pretty, my dear,’ said that devoted husband, walking up and down his blue and gold drawing-room, as restlessly as a polar bear in his cage, ‘but I can’t say that I hold with this new style of visiting. If you was to ask people to a jolly good dinner they’d be sure to come; if you asked them to a friendly tea, I dare say they’d come, though they might think it low. But you send ’em your pasteboard with “Mrs. Piper, Thursdays, At home from four to six,” and I’ll lay they don’t know what to make of it.’ ‘It’s quite the right thing, Mr. Piper. In London everybody of any importance does it. And here, where the distances people have to come are so much longer, it is still more convenient.’ ‘Then I suppose you’re not of any importance, my dear,’ said the provoking Mr. Piper, ‘for you see nobody comes.’ ‘How can you say so, Mr. Piper,’ cried Bella, reddening with anger at this obnoxious truth. ‘Miss Coyle came last Thursday.’ ‘Yes, and the Thursday before that, and the Thursday before that again. That old lady will come anywhere for the sake of a dish of scandal and a cup of strong tea.’ ‘And Mrs. Dulcimer comes.’