'We will leave them to discuss their water-works at their ease. Certainly residence abroad is an excellent education.'
'A very superior man,' said Adeline.
'Those self-made men always are.'
'In the nature of things, added Miss Mohun, 'or they would not have mounted.'
'It is the appendages that are distressing,' said Lady Rotherwood, 'and they seldom come in one's way. Has this man left any in Italy?'
'Oh no, none alive. He took his wife there for her health, and that was the way he came to set up his Italian quarries; but she and his child both died there long ago, and he has never come back to this place since,' explained Ada.
'But he has relations here,' said Jane. 'His cousin was an officer in Jasper Merrifield's regiment.'
She hoped to have been saying a word in the cause of the young people, but she regretted her attempt, for Lady Rotherwood replied-
'I have heard of them. A very undeserving family, are they not?'
Gillian, whom Miss Elworthy was trying to entertain, heard, and could not help colouring all over, face, neck, and ears, all the more for so much hating the flush and feeling it observed.
Miss Mohun's was a very decided, 'I should have said quite the reverse.'
'Indeed! Well, I heard the connection lamented, for his sake, by- what was her name? Mrs. Stirling-or-'
'Mrs. Stebbing,' said Adeline. 'You don't mean that she has actually called on you?'
'Is there any objection to her?' asked Lady Rotherwood, with a glance to see whether the girl was listening.
'Oh no, no! only he is a mere mason-or quarryman, who has grown rich,' said Adeline.
The hostess gave a little dry laugh.
'Is that all? I thought you had some reason for disapproving of her. I thought her rather sensible and pleasing'
Cringing and flattering, thought Jane; and that is just what these magnificent ladies like in the wide field of inferiors. But aloud she could not help saying, 'My principal objection to Mrs. Stebbing is that I have always thought her rather a gossip-on the scandalous side.' Then, bethinking herself that it would not be well to pursue the subject in Gillian's presence, she explained where the Stebbings lived, and asked how long Lord Rotherwood could stay.
'Only over Sunday. He is going to look over the place to-morrow, and next day there is to be a public meeting about it. I am not sure that we shall not go with him. I do not think the place agrees with Phyllis.'
The last words were spoken just as the two gentlemen had come in from the dining-room, rather sooner than was expected, and they were taken up.
'Agrees with Phyllis! She looks pounds-nay, hundred-weights better than when we left home. I mean to have her down to-morrow on the beach for a lark-castle-building, paddling-with Mysie and Val, and Fergus and all. That's what would set her up best, wouldn't it, Jane?'
Jane gave a laughing assent, wondering how much of this would indeed prove castle-building, though adding that Fergus was at school, and that it was not exactly the time of year for paddling.
'Oh, ah, eh! Well, perhaps not-forestalling sweet St. Valentine- stepping into their nests they paddled. Though St. Valentine is past, and I thought our fortunes had been made, Mr. White, by calling this the English Naples, and what not.'
'Those are the puffs, my lord. There is a good deal of difference even between this and Rocca Marina, which is some way up the mountain.'
'It must be very beautiful,' said Miss Ada.
'Well, Miss Mohun, people do say it is striking.' And he was drawn into describing the old Italian mansion, purchased on the extinction of an ancient family of nobles, perched up on the side of a mountain, whose feet the sea laved, with a terrace whence there was a splendid view of the Gulf of Genoa, and fine slopes above and below of chestnut-trees and vineyards; and therewith he gave a hearty invitation to the company present to visit him there if ever they went to Italy, when he would have great pleasure in showing them many bits of scenery, and curious remains that did not fall in the way of ordinary tourists.
Lady Rotherwood gratefully said she should remember the invitation if they went to the south, as perhaps they should do that very spring.
'And,' said Ada, 'you are not to be expected to remain long in this climate when you have a home like that awaiting you.'
'Don't call it home, Miss Mohun,' he said. 'I have not had that these many years; but I declare, the first sound of our county dialect, when I got out at the station, made my heart leap into my mouth. I could have shaken hands with the fellow.'
'Then I hope you will remain here for some time. There is much wanting to be set going,' said Jane.
'So I thought of doing, and I had out a young fellow, who I thought might take my place-my partner's son, young Stebbing. They wrote that he had been learning Italian, with a view to being useful to me, and so on; but when he came out, what was he but a fine gentleman- never had put his hand to a pick, nor a blasting-iron; and as to his Italian, he told me it was the Italian of Alfieri and Leopardi. Leopardi's Italian it might be, for it was a very mottled or motley tongue, but he might as well have talked English or Double-Dutch to our hands, or better, for they had picked up the meaning of some orders from me before I got used to their lingo. And then he says 'tis office work and superintendence he understands. How can you superintend, I told him, what you don't know yourself? No, no; go home and bring a pair of hands fit for a quarryman, before I make you overlooker.'
This was rather delightful, and it further appeared that he could answer all Jane's inquiries after her beloved promising lads whom he had deported to the Rocca Marina quarries.
They were evidently kindly looked after, and she began to perceive that it was not such a bad place after all for them, more especially as he was in the act of building them a chapel, and one of his objects in coming to England was to find a chaplain; and as Lord Rotherwood said, he had come to the right shop, since Rockquay in the spring was likely to afford a choice of clergy with weak chests, or better still, with weak-chested wives, to whom light work in a genial climate would be the greatest possible boon.
Altogether the evening was very pleasant, only too short. It was a curious study for Jane Mohun how far Lady Rotherwood would give way to her husband. She always seemed to give way, but generally accomplished her own will in the end, and it was little likely that she would allow the establishment to await the influx of Merrifields, though certainly Gillian had done nothing displeasing all that evening except that terrible blushing, for which piece of ingenuousness her aunt loved her all the better.
At half-past ten next morning, however, Lord Rotherwood burst in to borrow Valetta for a donkey-ride, for which his lady had compounded instead of the paddling and castle-building, and certainly poor Val could not do much to corrupt Fly on donkey back, and in his presence. He further routed out Gillian, nothing loth, from her algebra, bidding her put on her seven-leagued boots, and not get bent double- and he would fain have seized on his cousin Jane, but she was already gone off for an interview with the landlord of the most eligible of the two houses.
Gillian and Valetta came back very rosy, and in fits of merriment. Lord Rotherwood had paid the donkey-boys to stay at home, and let him and Gillian take their place. They had gone out on the common above the town, with most amusing rivalries as to which drove the beast worst, making Mysie umpire. Then having attained a delightfully lonely place, Fly had begged for a race with Valetta, which failed, partly because Val's donkey would not stir, and partly because Fly could not bear the shaking; and then Lord Rotherwood himself insisted on riding the donkey that wouldn't go, and racing Gillian on the donkey that would-and he made his go so effectually that it ran away with him, and he pulled it up at last only just in time to save himself from being ignominiously stopped by an old fishwoman!
He had, as Aunt Jane said, regularly dipped Gill back into childhood, and she looked, spoke, and moved all the better for it.
CHAPTER XV. THE ROCKS OF ROCKSTONE
Lord Rotherwood came in to try to wile his cousin to share in the survey of the country; but she declared it to
