“Yes,” she said; “you're an observer. You will see the thing in right perspective.”

“I shall endeavor to. What does Tod say?”

“Oh! Tod never seems to say anything. At least, I never hear of it.”

Felix murmured:

“Tod is a well in the desert.”

To which deep saying Clara made no reply, not indeed understanding in the least what it might signify.

That evening, when Alan, having had his fill of billiards, had left the smoking-room and gone to bed, Felix remarked to Stanley:

“I say, what sort of people are these Mallorings?”

Stanley, who was settling himself for the twenty minutes of whiskey, potash, and a Review, with which he commonly composed his mind before retiring, answered negligently:

“The Mallorings? Oh! about the best type of landowner we've got.”