‘Not like to have you?’
‘O yes, I should be all very well; but if they heard I was bringing three or four men with me, they would think them regular wild beasts. They would be in an awful fright. Besides, it is so long since I have been at home, that I don’t altogether fancy going there till I settle there for good.’
‘Ah! it will be sad going there at first.’
‘And it has not been my duty yet.’
‘But you will be glad when you get there?’
‘Sha’n’t I? I wonder if any one has been to shoot the rabbits on the shag rock. They must have quite overrun it by this time. But I don’t like the notion of the first day. There is not only the great change, but a stranger at the vicarage.’
‘Do you know anything about the new clergyman? I believe Mrs. Ashford is a connection of Lady Thorndale’s?’
‘Yes; Thorndale calls them pattern people, and I have no doubt they will do great good in the parish. I am sure we want some enlightenment, for we are a most primitive race, and something beyond Jenny Robinson’s dame school would do us no harm.’
Here Mr. Edmonstone called from the window that they must come in.
Mrs. Edmonstone thought deeply that night. She had not forgotten her notion that Eveleen was attracted by Guy’s manners, and had been curious to see what would happen when Eveleen was sent to Hollywell for country air.