It was hardly enough for her that the world should know that she was a De Guest, and therefore she had assumed little pompous ways and certain airs of condescension which did not make her popular with her neighbours.
The intercourse between Guestwick Manor and Allington was not very frequent or very cordial.

Soon after the running away of the Lady Fanny, the two families had agreed to acknowledge their connection with each other, and to let it be known by the world that they were on friendly terms.

Either that course was necessary to them, or the other course, of letting it be known that they were enemies.
Friendship was the less troublesome, and therefore the two families called on each other from time to time, and gave each other dinners about once a year.

The earl regarded the squire as a man who had deserted his politics, and had thereby forfeited the respect due to him as an hereditary land magnate; and the squire was wont to belittle the earl as one who understood nothing of the outer world.
At Guestwick Manor Bernard was to some extent a favourite.

He was actually a relative, having in his veins blood of the De Guests, and was not the less a favourite because he was the heir to Allington, and because the blood of the Dales was older even than that of the noble family to which he was allied.