A Visit to Guestwick As the party from Allington rode up the narrow High Street of Guestwick, and across the market square towards the small, respectable, but very dull row of new houses in which Mrs Eames lived, the people of Guestwick were all aware that Miss Lily Dale was escorted by her future husband.

The opinion that she had been a very fortunate girl was certainly general among the Guestwickians, though it was not always expressed in open or generous terms.

"It was a great match for her," some said, but shook their heads at the same time, hinting that Mr Crosbie's life in London was not all that it should be, and suggesting that she might have been more safe had she been content to bestow herself upon some country neighbour of less dangerous pretensions.

Others declared that it was no such great match after all.

They knew his income to a penny, and believed that the young people would find it very difficult to keep a house in London unless the old squire intended to assist them.