“Well, I cannot tell, can I, my dear?--the first peep I have had.” He cleared his throat and raised his voice. “I believe we are to have the pleasure of entertaining you, Mr. Compton, on a certain joyful occasion (joyful to you, not to us). I need not say how pleased my wife and I and the other members of the family will be. There are not very many of us--we are only five in number--my son, and my daughter, and Miss Dale, my wife’s sister, but much younger than Mrs. Hudson--who has done us the pleasure of staying with us for part of the year. I think she has met you somewhere, or knows some of your family, or--something. She is a great authority on noble families. I don’t know whether it is because she has been a good deal in society, or whether it is out of Debrett----” “Nell, come and tell me what this is,” Compton said. “Oh, Phil! it is nothing, it is a carriage. I don’t know what it is. Be civil to the Rector, please.” “So I am, perfectly civil.” “You have not answered a single word, and he has been talking to you for ten minutes.” “Well, but he hasn’t said anything that I can answer. He says Miss Something or other knows my family. Perhaps she does. Well, much good may it do her! but what can I say to that? I am sure I don’t know hers. I didn’t come here to be talked to by the Rector. Could we slip out and leave him with your mother? That would suit his book a great deal better. Come, let’s go.” “Oh! he is speaking to you, Phil.” Compton turned round and eyed the Hector. “Yes?” he said in so marked an interrogative that Mr. Hudson stopped short and flushed. He had been talking for some time. “Oh! I was not precisely asking a question,” he said, in his quiet tones. “I was saying that we believe and hope that another gentleman is coming with you--for the occasion.” “Dick Bolsover,” said Compton, “a son of Lord Freshfield’s; perhaps Miss----, the lady you were talking of, may know his family too. His brother got a little talked of in that affair about Fille d’Or, don’t you know, at Newmarket. But Dick is a rattling good fellow, doesn’t race, and has no vices. He is coming to stand by me and see that all’s right.” “We shall be happy to see Mr. Bolsover, I am sure.” The Rector rubbed his hands and said to himself with pleasure that two Honourables in his quiet house was something to think of, and that he hoped it would not turn the heads of the ladies, and make Alice expect--one couldn’t tell what. And then he said, by way of changing yet continuing the subject, “I suppose you’ve been looking at the presents. Elinor must have shown you her presents.” “By Jove, I never thought of the presents. Have you got a lot, Nell?”