Ella bore quietly on her way, never dreaming of the social machinations of which she was the central figure. At present she scarcely went anywhere; her loss was too recent; and she thought she might be spared a little time before plunging into the vortex of that social power, called Society.
Meanwhile the grand old house began to put on a different appearance. Whether Ella would have entered on desirable improvements so soon, cannot be told, but Mrs. Carlyon urged it. Painters and paperhangers took possession. Rooms were unlocked and thrown open to the daylight that had been shut up for years. Not the north wing. Some feeling, of which she did not speak, caused Ella to leave that untouched. New furniture, sober in look and in keeping with the old mansion, but very handsome withal, was ordered down from London. Inside and out, the Hall was renovated and put in thorough repair. The green baize doors, that had caused so much speculation, were taken away. The garden-paths were regravelled, and new flower-beds laid out. John Tilney was more busy than he had ever been before, although he had two men under him now. Two or three servants were added to those indoors, much to the indignation of Aaron Stone, and also of his wife, Dorothy, who could only think with and be led by her husband. They would have preferred that the old state of things should go on for ever; Aaron, in his mind, resenting it as a personal insult that they did not.
"It's all along o' that Mrs. Carline!" he grumbled to his wife. "Miss Ella, bless her, would never have made changes of her own accord. I don't like it, mark you, and I wish she was gone."
"Miss Ella would be but lonely without her aunt just now," Dorothy ventured to answer deprecatingly.
"Waste and extravagance!--them's the words," burst out Aaron. "More servants here indoors; more on 'em out; and a spick-and-span new carriage from London. The old Squire's hair would stand on end if he could put his head out of his coffin and take a quiet look round."
But if Aaron did not like "Mrs. Carline"--as he chose to call her in domestic privacy--neither did she like him; and it was the old man's hair that might have stood on end, instead of the Squire's, had he heard the advice that lady one day gave her niece. There was something about Aaron himself that Mrs. Carlyon had always disliked, and his sour temper and general crustiness of manner did not tend to soften her impression.
"My dear Ella, I suppose you will now pension off old Aaron Stone and his wife?"
Ella looked up in surprise.
"I have not thought of doing anything of the kind. I have never thought about it at all."
"It is time you did. They are growing old and infirm; they belong to the past. Quite anomalies, they seem, in a modern establishment."