“He was quite agreeable about it, Lancelot--porcelain on legs, nickel-plated hot and cold, _you_ know! I really hadn’t to hint more than _twice_! That led on, of course, to the Perils to Plumbers--my dear boy, how often have I told you that I never _ask_? He’s sending the cheque to-night. You don’t think, Miss Shaw, that your charming father----? Really, Lancelot, you needn’t bite my head off! You’re not a bit grateful about the bath, and I don’t agree with you that the old one was all right. I knew I should get a present to-day, because I put on my skirt wrong side out. That always means luck! It was rather awkward, because the wrong side of the stuff doesn’t go with the coat, and the picoted seams looked rather queer--I saw people staring, on the stand--but I’m glad I stuck to it! If I’d changed, I shouldn’t have got the bath.” Dandy listened vaguely to the chattering voice, thinking of her father, happily mounted on his favourite hobby. He would love looking after Stubbs, and they would spend the evening forming plans for his regeneration. She had a touch of tenderness for the impossible Stubbs; he had unintentionally given her this blissful ride in the rain. When Helwise stopped for a second, she listened to the hoofs and to Lanty’s little clicks and calls of encouragement. She had heard him define horse-travelling as “company and music.” She remembered it now, and had music in her heart to match. And so, in hearing it, forgot to listen to Helwise altogether. * * * * * And for a whole week the County talked of Hamer, and went about prating of _Bdelloidaceæ_ as if they bred them, and looked up rotiferous information on the quiet, in order to confound each other’s ignorance. The wives called at Watters and filled the card-tray, and the postman staggered under letters of invitation. Hamer became known as “sound,” “useful,” “a man at a pinch,” “a dashed good sort all round, don’t you know!” and every club in the district fought to own him. He was quite pleased about it all, and never guessed that his impulsive piece of “tramming” had worked the transformation. Somebody in a hole needing pulling out was all that Hamer wanted to make him happy, and he was seldom out of a job. He welcomed the new friends as he had welcomed the grinders and leeches, and opened to them his heart and his pocket. That was how Hamer became “county.” CHAPTER XIV THE OLD ORDER