Adela Waltham had been formerly talked of in connection with young Eldon; but Eldon was now out of the question, and behold his successor, in a double sense! Mrs.Mewling surrendered her Sunday afternoon nap and flew from house to house--of course in time for the dessert wine at each.

Her cry was _haro_! Really, this was sharp practice on Mrs.Waltham's part; it was stealing a march before the commencement of the game.

Did there not exist a tacit understanding that movements were postponed until Mutimer's occupation of the Manor?
Adela was a very nice young girl, to be sure, a very nice girl indeed, but one must confess that she had her eyes open.

Would it not be well for united Wanley to let her know its opinion of such doings?
In the meantime Richard was enjoying himself, with as little thought of the Wanley gossips as of--shall we say, the old curtained pew in Wanley Church?
He was perfectly aware that the Walthams did not represent the highest gentility, that there was a considerable interval, for example, between Mrs.Waltham and Mrs.Westlake; but the fact remained that he had never yet been on intimate terms with a family so refined.

Radical revolutionist though he was, he had none of the grossness or obstinacy which would have denied to the _bourgeois_ household any advantage over those of his own class.