Such was the lady who paid her momentary visit to Mrs. Falconer at the carriage door, and whose thoughts as she moved about in her new and spacious home continually reverted to the banished ones, possibly shut up in some dingy house of the city street.
Everywhere she traced the graceful tastes of the late mistress of the Moat, everywhere she heard regrets for her departure, and praises of her character; and the desire grew strong within her to prove sympathy and respect in some substantial manner.
But Mistress Hazelwood's instinctive practise was to hide her own loving impulses behind her husband's actions, and to claim for him the tribute, while she shared with him the pure pleasure of generous and useful deeds.
She knew well how a little suggestion expanded in his mind, and often went beyond all her expectations. Presently he would certainly perceive some way to benefit those who had been suddenly deprived of so much that he and his were now enjoying.
In the meantime, there must be no grasping at a shadow and losing the substance; no craving for future usefulness in some congenial form, while duty ready to her heart and hand lay before her in God's appointment.
Those closed doors in the village had chilled her, and must be opened somehow; she must try to supply Mrs. Falconer's place. Her devout and humble manner as she took her place in the great family pew at church on Sunday was particularly approved by the clerk, who commented thereon to the good old gardener, who had not yet required the epitaph.
But of Miss Hazelwood, he could not so favourably report; for she had looked about her, and stared in a peculiar manner at him when he delivered his first "Amen," which he had meant to render unusually impressive, and she did not seem impressed at all,—at least, not respectfully so.
"But she is but a young thing, and must be taught better. Hazel Copse was but an outlandish sort of place, and maybe young Miss had never heard before an 'Amen' as it should be. As for the Squire, he was certainly a pleasant gentleman enough, and not too proud to shake hands with an honest poor man. He had himself looked in at the gardener's cottage with a bunch of grapes for the invalid, which was a good sign; and he would have power to do a deal more than Mrs. Falconer could do in the way of gifts; so perhaps when they came to be known, and the pert little Miss had mended her manners, things might not go so badly after all."
Mr. Herbert heard opinions and remarks, and wisely left matters to take their course. The turn of feeling in the village would be all the stronger when resulting from personal experience, than if constrained by any pressure of advice or suggestion from him.
In honourable sympathy with the general feeling which attended the transfer by purchase of an old family estate, there were no rejoicings at the Moat; and the chief changes to be noticed were the presence of a master and manager of his own affairs, with a bright cheerful little lady for his help-mate, instead of the calm pale face of the widow in her suit of undeviating black, and instead of the poor young heir and his graceful sister, only the one radiant presence of the butterfly heiress, whom nobody could ever resolve to correct or punish. She bounded about like a ball, dived into things serious and comic, resolutely refused to mount the black pony, which she learned had been Guy's, and most irreverently mimicked Mr. Spadeley's impressive "Amen" in his own place of dignity, when exploring the church.