"Sir Bryan De Barreilles, Hasket of Norland, Maulerer of Phascald, and old Dr Howlet. They will be here soon, so you had better make haste." "I had better not appear, love," said Jane; "no ladies are coming, and among so many gentlemen my presence might be awkward." "By no means," replied the husband. "It wouldn't be right, Mr Peeper, for my wife to be absent from the supper-table?" "Certainly not. It is to see _her_ the neighbours are coming." Is this Mr Peeper to have the control of all my actions? thought Jane. Who can he be? She took another glance at the object of her thoughts, but caught his eye fixed on her with the same penetrating brightness as before; and she cast her looks on the ground; and, whether from anger or fear, she felt her cheeks glowing with blushes. "You will not be long gone, if you please," he said to Jane as she retired to change her dress. "You don't seem pleased to see us, Mr Peeper," said Reginald, when Jane had gone to her room under the guidance of a very tall old woman, who walked before her, holding out a tremendously long candle, as if it were a sword, and she was at the head of a military procession. "No, sir," replied Mr Peeper; "I am not pleased with the person you have brought here. You have gone too far from home for a wife. None of the Belfronts have ever married out of Yorkshire, and it may give rise to troubles." "I am very sorry my wife's relations would not allow me to send for you to perform the ceremony." "It is a bad omen," said the old man; "my predecessors have married your predecessors without a break since the conquest. It bodes no good." "I trust no harm will happen, and that you will soon forget the disappointment." "None of my family forget, but we will not _talk_ of it." So saying, he turned away, and arranged a goodly array of bottles on the sideboard. Reginald sat down on an oak chair beside the fire, and gazed attentively into the log.