“Then away with them this minute to Beaumont Park,” said the woman; “for here’s Madam Beaumont’s man, Martin, called _in a flustrum_ while you was away, to say madam must have the nicest of our fish, whatsomever it might be, and a john-doree, if it could be had for love or money, for Tuesday.”--Here the woman, perceiving Miss Walsingham, dropped a curtsy. “Your humble servant, Miss Walsingham,” said the woman. “On Tuesday?” said Miss Walsingham: “are you sure that Mrs. Beaumont bespoke the fish for Tuesday?” “Oh, _sartin_ sure, miss; for Martin mentioned, moreover, what he had heard talk in the servants’ hall, that there is to be a very _pettiklar_ old gentleman, as rich! as rich! as rich can be! from foreign parts, and a great friend of the colonel that’s dead; and he--that is, the old _pettiklar_ gentleman--is to be down all the way from Lon’on to dine at the park on Tuesday for _sartin_: so, husband, away with the john-doree and the turbot, while they be fresh.” “But why,” thought Miss Walsingham, “did not Mrs. Beaumont tell us the plain truth, if this is the truth?” CHAPTER II. “_Young Hermes next, a close contriving god, Her brows encircled with his serpent rod; Then plots and fair excuses fill her brain, And views of breaking am’rous vows for gain_.” The information which Mrs. Beaumont’s man, Martin, had learned from the servants’ hall, and had communicated to the fisherman’s wife, was more correct, and had been less amplified, embellished, misunderstood, or misrepresented, than is usually found to be the case with pieces of news which are so heard and so repeated. It was true that Mrs. Beaumont expected to see on Tuesday an old gentleman, a Mr. Palmer, who had been a friend of her husband’s; he had lately returned from Jamaica, where he had made a large fortune. It is true, also, that this old gentleman was _a little particular_, but not precisely in the sense in which the fisherman’s wife understood the phrase; he was not particularly fond of john-dorees and turbots, but he was particularly fond of making his fellow-creatures happy; particularly generous, particularly open and honest in his nature, abhorring all artifice himself, and unsuspicious of it in others. He was unacquainted with Mrs. Beaumont’s character, as he had been for many years in the West Indies, and he knew her only from her letters, in which she appeared every thing that was candid and amiable. His great friendship for her deceased husband also inclined him to like her. Colonel Beaumont had appointed him one of the guardians of his children, but Mr. Palmer, being absent from England, had declined to act: he was also trustee to Mrs. Beaumont’s marriage-settlement, and she had represented that it was necessary he should be present at the settlement of her family affairs upon her son’s coming of age; an event which was to take place in a few days. The urgent representations of Mrs. Beaumont, and the anxious desire she expressed to see Mr.