"You're a very good girl, Jane; and Mr Peeper can't help but be pleased, and I am glad of it; for it ought to be our first study to make ourselves agreeable to him."
"Agreeable to Mr Peeper!" thought Jane. "How strange that I never was told about him before this moment! Does he live in the castle, Reginald?" she asked.
"Certainly. One of his family has lived there ever since one of mine did; so there is a connexion between us of a few hundred years."
"Have you any other friends who live in the castle?" enquired the bride.
"I don't know whether Phil Lorimer is there just now or not; he has a room whenever he comes; and a knife and fork at table."
"Who is he?"
"A capital fellow—full of wit—and makes funnier faces and better songs than any man in Yorkshire. You will like Phil Lorimer."
"And I hope he will like me!"
"If he don't, I'll break every bone in his body."
"Oh! I beg you won't," said the bride with a smile, and looking up in Reginald's face to assure herself he spoke in joke. It was as earnest a face as if it had been of cast-iron; and she saw that Mr Lorimer's only chance of preserving a whole skin was to like her with all his might.