“Sir,” cried Jericho; at the same time shutting his brow in such a deep tight fold that had a fly been at the time upon his forehead, it must have been crushed to bits in the sudden wrinkle.—“Sir!”
“When I say the picturesque, I mean you don’t like houses in trees; that is, houses in the raw material? Houses, without carpenters, you know? They are without carpenters,—eh?”
A very few weeks ago, and had Sir Arthur Hodmadod, Bart., dropt a single syllable to Jericho, he would have treasured it even as a syllable of the girl, whose biggest words were the largest jewels. And now, in contemptuous silence, he looked upon the baronet with a grim, sharp face; keen, inexorable; the aspect of an axe. Possibly, the imaginative baronet regarded it as such; for he seemed irrepressibly to pass his hand round the back of his neck; at the same time urging on his steed, as though pricked by sudden peril.
“Why, my dear Jericho,” said Sabilla, “what a love you had for the country.”
“I’ve grown out of green food, madam; can’t abide it,” said Jericho.
“Never tell me, Solomon, I know you love it still. And how delicious, after your work in the Commons—how delicious when you can, to come to such a place as this. A place that must give you new strength, new ideas, new freshness,” said Mrs. Jericho. “Every man with such an amount of national work must be the better for the country.”
“It’s like going to grass, you know,” said Hodmadod, again dropping back.
“Quite,” said Candituft. “The country is the natural abode of man. Nothing like the fruits of rustic thought. Give me an Act of Parliament that smells of the green earth.”
“Delicious,” said Hodmadod. “An Act of Parliament that smells like a nosegay. When I say a nosegay, of course I mean, smells of the landed interest. Nothing like the country for a statute. Without the country, you know, we should have no laws against poachers. Should we?” There was no spoken answer; none: but Agatha always eloquently replied, for she always smiled.
“Certainly the loveliest village, I ever saw,” cried Mrs. Jericho as the carriage—according to orders—rolled slowly through a double line of cottages. “Delightful, is it not? The first time I saw it, I thought to myself,—well, here I could gather myself up to repose for life.”