"I didn't know it myself till the day before yesterday. I'm going to give an account of my stewardship to the good-natured Perivalians who send me to Parliament. I'm to dine with the mayor to-morrow, and as some big-wig has come in his way who is going to dine with him also, the thing has been got up in a hurry. But I'm delighted to find that you are to be with us." "I generally go to my aunt about this time of the year." "It is very good-natured of you." Then he asked after her father, and she told him of Mr. Belton's visit, telling him nothing--as the reader will hardly require to be told--of Mr. Belton's offer. And so, by degrees, they fell into close and intimate conversation. "I am so glad, for your father's sake!" said the captain, with sympathetic voice, speaking still of Mr. Belton's visit. "That's what I feel, of course." "It is just as it should be, as he stands in that position to the property. And so he is a nice sort of fellow, is he?" "Nice is no word for him. He is perfect!" "Dear me! This is terrible! You remember that they hated some old Greek patriot when they could find no fault in him?" "I'll defy you to hate my cousin Will." "What sort of looking man is he?" "Extremely handsome;--at least I should say so." "Then I certainly must hate him. And clever?" "Well;--not what you would call clever. He is very clever about fields and cattle." "Come, there is some relief in that." "But you must not mistake me. He is clever; and then there's a way about him of doing everything just as he likes it, which is wonderful. You feel quite sure that he'll become master of everything." "But I do not feel at all sure that I should like him the better for that!" "But he doesn't meddle in things that he doesn't understand. And then he is so generous! His spending all that money down there is only done because he thinks it will make the place pleasanter to papa." "Has he got plenty of money?" "Oh, plenty! At least, I think so. He says that he has." "The idea of any man owning that he had got plenty of money! What a happy mortal! And then to be handsome, and omnipotent, and to understand cattle and fields! One would strive to emulate him rather than envy him, had not one learned to acknowledge that it is not given to every one to get to Corinth." "You may laugh at him, but you'd like him if you knew him." "One never can be sure of that from a lady's account of a man. When a man talks to me about another man, I can generally tell whether I should like him or not--particularly if I know the man well who is giving the description; but it is quite different when a woman is the describer." "You mean that you won't take my word?" "We see with different eyes in such matters. I have no doubt your cousin is a worthy man--and as prosperous a gentleman as the Thane of Cawdor in his prosperous days;--but probably if he and I came together we shouldn't have a word to say to each other."