“Must I?” asked the invalid with flickering colour. “Well, perhaps as you are not feeling very well I had better do it for you; the post goes out in ten minutes,” and carrying the flowers in one hand, with the precious card in the other, Mrs. Fenchurch effected a precipitate departure. Whatever Mrs. Fenchurch had said in her letter, the result was, that boxes of flowers now arrived at The Holt about twice a week; and once more the atmosphere within, thawed with the atmosphere without! CHAPTER X Hugo Blagdon was a well-known habitué of Monte Carlo, and he fled thither early in February to avoid an English spring, and escape from a personality that threatened to lure him into the noose of matrimony! His grandfather had been overseer in a coal mine, and his father, Laban, a clever man of ceaseless energy and enterprise, had, by his own efforts, risen to vast wealth. He was a typical Yorkshire tyke; hard-headed, hard-bitten, and plain of speech, standing squarely on his feet and his principles. When over fifty, he had disposed of his collieries to a syndicate, and looked about him for a country estate, and a suitable consort. At this time Sharsley, the ancient seat of the Scropes, happened to be in the market; the family had fallen on evil days, and the last representative was a thin, dignified old gentleman, with an empty purse and many spinster daughters. During tedious negotiations, the would-be purchaser made acquaintance with the Squire’s family, and when he took over the property, he also received the taper hand of the stateliest and slenderest of the Scrope sisters. Ill-natured gossips declared that in consequence of this arrangement, the canny Yorkshire-man had obtained an abatement of ten thousand pounds on the price of the property--but envious people will say anything! Mrs. Blagdon’s aristocratic relations agreed that dearest Carrie, who was ‘getting on,’ had done remarkably well for herself; the bride was perfectly satisfied with her honest, stolid husband, and he for his part felt proud of his Carrie; she matched Sharsley, and naturally was far more at home there than himself. Mrs. Blagdon fulfilled her duties to admiration; an elegant, dignified figure, she sat at the head of his table, glorious and dazzling in the new Blagdon diamonds, entertaining her neighbours with gracious distinction. Moreover, she was most kind and thoughtful to her husband’s family, especially to his old aunt, Fanny Jane, who spoke broad Yorkshire, had not marched with the times, and preferred to dine at one o’clock--and in her bonnet.