"Oh, no," she rejoined. "I know very few people, except my own, of course."
"Which is considered the principal family here?" he asked.
"The Benyon family is the biggest and the wickedest, I should think," she answered casually.
"But I meant the most important," he explained, smiling.
"I don't know," she said. "Uncle James Patten thinks that next to himself the Benyons are. He married one of them. He's an awful snob."
"And what is his position?"
"I don't know—he's a landowner; that's his estate over there," and she nodded towards Fairholm.
"Indeed! How far does it extend?"
"From the sea right up to the hills there, and a little way beyond."
They had left the rocks by this time, and were toiling up the steep road into the town. When they reached the top, Beth exclaimed abruptly, "I am late! I must fly!" and leaving her companion without further ceremony, turned down a side street and ran home.