“I must say Mr. Butler has surrounded himself with some choice associates,” said Lady Lyle; “and all this time I have been encouraging myself to believe that so very young a man would have had no connections, no social relations, he could not throw off without difficulty.”
“The world will do all his sifting process for him, if we only have patience,” said Sir Arthur; and, indeed, it is but fair to say that he spoke with knowledge, since, in his own progress through life, he had already made the acquaintance of four distinct and separate classes in society, and abandoned each in turn for that above it.
“Was he much elated, Mr. Damer,” asked Lady Lyle, “when he heard of his good fortune?”
“I think he was at first; but it made so little impression on him, that more than once he went on to speculate on his future, quite forgetting that he had become independent; and then, when he remembered it, he certainly did look very happy and cheerful.”
“And what sort of plans has he?” asked Bella.
“They're all about his mother; everything is for her. She is to keep that cottage, and the ground about it, and he is to make a garden for her; and it seems she likes cows,—she is to have cows. It's a lucky chance that the old lady had n't a taste for a plesiosaurus, or he 'd be offering a prize for one to-morrow.”
“He's a dear good fellow, as he always was,” said Bella.
“The only real change I see in him,” said Skeffy, “is that now he is never grumpy,—he takes everything well; and if crossed for a moment, he says, 'Give me a weed; I must smoke away that annoyance.'”
“How sensual!” said my Lady; but nobody heeded the remark.
At the moment, too, a young midshipman saluted Darner from the street, and informed him that the first cutter was at the jetty to take the party off to the “Talisman;” and Captain Paynter advised them not to delay very long, as the night looked threatening. Lady Lyle needed no stronger admonition; she declared that she would go at once; and although the Captain's own gig, as an attention of honor, was to be in to take her, she would not wait, but set out immediately.