“No! that I protest against. His ‘accessories,’ as the French would call them, are undeniable. It is a house absolutely princely in all its details; but I think he himself is the gem of the collection. He is so courteous and so pleasant, so anecdotic, and so full of all manner of _apropos_, and then so utterly unlike every one else that one knows.” “I suppose there lies his chief attraction. We have to measure him with people all whose thoughts and ideas are so essentially homely, and who must of necessity be eternally talking of themselves--that is, of their own turnpike, their own turnips, and their own cock pheasants.” “Is it not strange that he never married?” said Georgina, after a silence. “I don’t think so. He’s not a man that would be likely to marry, and very far from being one that a woman would like to take as a husband.” “Do you think so--do you really think so?” “I’m certain of it. All those charming little schemes for our entertainment that captivated us a while ago, show a degree of care and attention bestowed on little things which would make life a perfect servitude. Cannot you imagine him spending his mornings giving audience to his cook, and listening to the report of his gardener? I fancy I see him in the midst of a levee of domestics, gravely listening to the narrative of the last twenty-four hours of his household.” “So far from that,” said Georgina, warmly, “he told me Bernais did everything--engaged and discharged servants, changed furniture, rearranged rooms, and, in fact, managed little daily ‘surprises’ for him, that, as he said, compensated for much of the solitude in which he lived.” “But why does he live in solitude? Why not go back to the life and the places that habit has endeared to him?” “He told me to-day that he intended to do so; that he is only waiting for the visit of a certain relative, Mr. Ladarelle; after which he means to set out for Italy.” “Ladarelle is the great banker, and, if I mistake not, his heir.” “Yes. Sir Within says that they scarcely know each other, and have all that dislike and distrust that usually separate the man in possession and the man in expectancy.” “One can fancy how distasteful his heir must be to a man like Sir Within Wardle,” said Lady Vyner. “To any man, sister,” broke in Georgina--“to any man who only knows the person as the inheritor of his fortune. I declare I think Sir Within spoke of the Ladarelles with much forbearance, aware, as he is, that they are coming down here to see in what state of repair the castle is, and whether the oaks are being thinned more actively than a mere regard for their welfare would exact.”