"Manor Farm! That's the old house right the other end of your property, isn't it?"
"Yes, it's a pity it isn't this end. Then we could have had her between us. Still, it's one of the prettiest houses I've got, and I'm going to put it back to what it was before it was turned into a farmhouse, and make it all nice for 'em. I've told the child, and she's delighted. She knows how to play the daughter, Grafton. She'll make a lot of difference to me in my old age, bless her!"
Grafton had already been bombarded with congratulations from his own and his wife's relations, but they were not over yet, nor would be until the guests had all departed. Lady Grafton, who had remonstrated with him about his refusal to accept Lassigny as the desired husband for Beatrix, had admitted handsomely that this was a far more satisfactory marriage for her, but was never tired of hearing him say so. She came up to him with a glass of champagne in one hand and a piece of wedding cake in the other.
"Well, my dear George," she said. "Here's the first of them gone. I hope you're as pleased about it as you ought to be. You won't like losing the child, but you couldn't expect to keep her with you always, and she's married just the right sort of man."
"Wonderful powers of observation you have, Mary," he said. "I shouldn't like to disappoint you in any way, and I'm glad you're pleased with me."
"Ah now you're being sarcastic, but I'm sure I don't know what for. I'll behave handsomely to you, and admit that you turned out to be right a year ago, and all the rest of us turned out to be wrong, including B herself, apparently. I've never seen a girl more devoted to the man she's going to marry. Perfectly beautiful, I call it. She hasn't got a thought for anybody else. She'll make him a splendid wife, and I must say you deserve a great deal of credit for the way in which you've brought up all your girls. They have learnt to be everything to you, and I expect you've wanted a good deal of humouring, as all men do, though it doesn't show on the surface. If they have been able to manage you so well, they'll know how to manage their husbands, which most of us have to learn after we're married to them. I'm sure the trouble I had first of all with my dear old James, before I got into his ways—"
"Or he got into yours," suggested Grafton.
She allowed herself to be diverted. "Now, George," she said, "that's a thoroughly man's speech. Is James happy or is he not?"
"The Bank Rate is very satisfactory at present," said Grafton. "I think both James and I are as happy as we can expect to be."