CHAPTER XII.
HER LADYSHIP At Hazels Mary found her duties more onerous than they had been in town.
It was delightful to see Lady Agatha among her own people.

She had made life easier for them.

Mary marvelled at the prettiness of the red-brick farmhouses, with roses and honeysuckle to their eaves.

She could never get over the feeling that it was only a picture.

They would walk or drive to them, and the farmer's wife would come out and beg her Ladyship to come in for a glass of cowslip wine; and she and Mary would go in to a rather dark parlour--to be sure, the windows were smothered in jessamine and roses and honeysuckle--and sit down in chairs covered in flowery chintz, and sip the fragrant wine and eat the home-made cake, while the topics of interest between landlord and tenant were discussed.
Then the farmer would come in himself, hat in hand, and his eyes would light up at the sight of the visitor, and there would be more pleasant homely talk of cattle and crops, and the harvest and the plans for the autumn sowing, and the state of fairs and markets.
There was Nuthatch Village, which seemed to have stepped out of Morland's pictures.