The approaching marriage of Mr. John Beacham, whose family had been time out of mind one of the most respected and respectable in the entire parish of Switcham, within the boundaries of which the Beachams had held land to a large extent under many a successive lord of the manor of Gillingham, was a very important event in that quiet locality. In his way, John Beacham might almost be styled a _public_ character. Far and near, whenever a certain highly interesting subject--namely, that of horses--was upon the _tapis_, honest John’s name was pretty certain to be brought prominently forward. It was surprising--in a country and on a matter in which almost every young gentleman, probably, held a first-rate opinion of his own merits as a judge of “cattle”--what weight the fiat of John Beacham, farmer and horse-breeder, was wont to carry with it. The latter vocation--and a highly lucrative one it was--had not been exercised for more than a dozen years or so by the lessees of Shotover Farm, by which name, by the way, the hundreds of broad acres rented by the Beacham family had, for generations past, been known. Some six years before the death of John’s father, the estate called Updown Paddocks, and which consisted of many a broad and fertile meadow, admirably adapted for breeding purposes, was announced to be for sale. It lay in tempting proximity to Mr. Beacham’s farm; the price in that prudent individual’s opinion was a reasonable one; he and his trusted son John were agreed in the matter; so, in due course of time, the tenants of Shotover progressed to the dignity of landowners. Meanwhile, and pending the final arrangements for the purchase, John’s mother, the “old lady” of whom honourable mention has already been made, showed herself anything but favourable to the new plan. Though a Yorkshire woman born and bred, the love of horses and of horse-dealing was not inherent in her septuagenarian breast. She was a tall, large-boned, but, in spite of her seventy years, still a well-favoured woman. John was her only surviving child, infantile complaints of various kinds having carried away four others before they had had time to wind themselves too closely round her heart; and in the said John, therefore--in his present comfort and his future fortunes--all her best affections and her keenest interests were concentrated. Many were the anxious moments endured, and not a few the querulous remarks uttered, by the farmer’s cautious wife before the complete success of the undertaking, so judiciously, and withal so conscientiously, carried on by her husband and son, laid her fears to rest, and effectually put a stop to her gloomy forebodings of loss and ruin. It is true that the excellent woman was kept a little in the dark regarding the details of the business which was already making for the breeding establishment of Beacham and Son a name throughout the land. The “old lady”--for by that title John’s