‘Yes, to the working people in London; the roughest of the rough, they say! What _will_ happen? It will be impossible for us to live here if they come and settle at the Manor. The neighbourhood will be intolerable. Think of the rag-tag-and-bobtail they will bring with them!’ ‘But Hubert!’ ejaculated Mrs. Waltham, whom this vision of barbaric onset affected little in the crashing together of a great airy castle. ‘Well, my dear, after all he still has more to depend upon than many we could instance. Probably he will take to the law,--that is, if he ever returns to England.’ ‘He is at the Manor,’ said Mrs. Waltham, with none of the pleasure it would ordinarily have given her to be first with an item of news. ‘He came this afternoon.’ ‘He did! Who has seen him?’ ‘Alfred and Adela passed him on the road. He was in a cab.’ ‘I feel for his poor mother. What a meeting it will be! But then we must remember that they had no actual claim on the inheritance. Of course it will be a most grievous disappointment, but what is life made of? I’m afraid some people will be anything but grieved. We must confess that Hubert has not been exactly popular; and I rather wonder at it; I’m sure he might have been if he had liked. Just a little too--too self-conscious, don’t you think? Of course it was quite a mistake, but people had an idea that he presumed on wealth which was not his own. Well, well, we quiet folk look on, don’t we? It’s rather like a play.’ Presently Mrs. Mewling leaned forward yet more confidentially. ‘My dear, you won’t be offended? You don’t mind a question? There wasn’t anything definite?--Adela, I mean.’ ‘Nothing, nothing whatever!’ Mrs. Waltham asserted with vigour. ‘Ha!’ Mrs. Mewling sighed deeply. ‘How relieved I am! I did so fear!’ ‘Nothing whatever,’ the other lady repeated. ‘Thank goodness! Then there is no need to breathe a word of those shocking matters. But they do get abroad so!’ A reflection Mrs. Mewling was justified in making. CHAPTER II The cab which had passed Adela and her brother at a short distance from Wanley brought faces to the windows or door of almost every house as it rolled through the village street. The direction in which it was going, the trunk on the roof, the certainty that it had come from Agworth station, suggested to everyone that young Eldon sat within. The occupant had, however, put up both windows just before entering the village, and sight of him was not obtained. Wanley had abundant matter for gossip that evening. Hubert’s return, giving a keener edge to the mystery of his so long delay, would alone have sufficed to wagging tongues; hut, in addition, Mrs. Mewling was on the warpath, and the intelligence she spread was of a kind to run like wildfire.