‘Nobody would know Black Mountain now,’ she said. ‘Since we have grown rich, comparatively speaking, from “the providential rise in the price of store cattle” (as one auctioneer called it), papa has indulged me by making all kinds of additions, and I suppose we must say improvements—new fences, new furniture, new stables, plants in the garden, books in the library. Money is the latter-day magician certainly.’
‘And you are proportionately happier, of course,’ said Wilfred.
‘Frankly,’ said Miss Fane, ‘I am, just at present. I feel like one of Napoleon’s generals, who were ennobled and enriched after having risen from the ranks. No doubt they enjoyed their new dignities immensely. If they didn’t, their wives did. I won’t say we were roturiers, but we were very, very poor. And it is so nice now to think we can dress as well as other people, and have the ordinary small luxuries of our position, without troubling about the everlasting ways and means.’
‘We are much alike in our experiences,’ answered Wilfred. ‘We should soon have been absolutely ruined—the ways and means would have simply been obliterated.’
‘I suppose so; but I never could believe in the poverty of any of you Lake William people. You seemed to have everything you could possibly want. The best part of our present good fortune is, that the boys are at a good school, while papa can buy as many new books as he can coax me, in mercy to his eyesight, to let him read. So I can say that we are quite happy.’
‘I wonder you don’t think of going to Europe. Dr. Fane could easily sell at a high price now; and then, fancy “the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them.”’
‘You are quoting the Tempter, which is not quite respectful to me—for once; but there is a reason why papa cannot bear the thought of leaving our dear, lonely old home. My poor mother was buried there, and his heart with her. For me, I have from childhood imbibed his feelings for the place of her grave.’
Rosamond here approached, and carried off her friend upon some mission of feminine importance. Wilfred, feeling that the conversation had taken a direction of melancholy which he could not fathom or adequately respond to, rejoined his other guests. But he could not help dwelling upon the fact that his conversations with Miss Fane seemed so utterly different from those with any other woman. Before the first sentences were well exchanged, one or other apparently struck the keynote, which awakened sympathetic chords, again vibrating amid harmonious echoes and semi-tones.
To complete the universal jubilation, Mr. O’Desmond, in acknowledgment of the interest which the inhabitants of the district had shown in his safe return, announced his intention of giving an entertainment at Badajos on New Year’s Day, at which amusements would be provided for his humbler neighbours as well as for the gentry of the district. He had ridden over to The Chase, and entreated Mrs. Effingham’s advice as to decorations and dispositions. It was to be a very grand affair. No one who knew O’Desmond doubted but that, having undertaken such a project, he would carry it out with elaborate completeness. So that, among the young people and general population of the district, the Badajos Revels were looked forward to with intense expectation.
‘What will the general plan of arrangement be?’ said Fred Churbett to Hamilton. ‘Something in the Elizabethan style, with giants, salvage-men, and dwarfs, speeches and poetical addresses to the Queen of the land, whoever she may be? Anyhow, he is going to spend a lot of money about it. I hear the preparations are tremendous.’