By this time Tyson was quite aware that his standing in the county had depended all along on the support which the Morleys were pleased to give him.

They had taken him up in the beginning, and his position had seemed secure.

If at that ripe moment he had chosen to strengthen it by a marriage with Lady Morley's dearest friend, he might have been anything he pleased.

Miss Batchelor of Meriden would have proved a still more powerful ally than Sir Peter.

She would have been as ambitious for him as he could have been for himself.