” That’s wonderful. I shall call for you to-morrow at two o’clock. I am now going back to tell her that you have agreed to call and see her.”

He did not wait for any more. He was shouting to the groom and seemed to have forgotten me.

Yet I liked him for it; and liking him, I was prepared not to dislike his grandmother, which previously I am afraid I had made up my mind to do.

The next day Simon Redvers called at the Revels promptly at two o’clock; he came in a phaeton drawn by two of the handsomest horses I had ever seen. I sat beside him during the journey which was under two miles.

” I could have walked,” I said.

” And deprived me of the pleasure of taking you?” The mocking note was back in his voice, but the antagonism between us had considerably lessened. He was pleased with me because I had agreed to see his grandmother, and as his obvious affection for her had softened me towards him, we could not hate each other so wholeheartedly.

Kelly Grange was a manor house which I guessed to be less than a hundred years old—very modem when compared with the Revels. It was of grey stone and surrounded by tertile land. We drove up to a pair of massive wrought-iron gates through which I saw an avenue of chestnut trees. From the lodge a woman, who was clearly with child, came out to open the gates for us.

Simon Redvers touched his hat in acknowledgment and she bobbed a curtsy, I smiled, and her eyes rested on me with speculation.

” Now I wonder,” I said as we drove on, ” if that could be Mary-Jane’s sister.”

“It’s Etty Hardcastle. Her husband works on the land for us.”

” Then it would be. Mary-Jane is my personal maid and she has told me of her sister.”

” In a place like this, you find everyone is related to every one else.

There! What do you think of the Grange? A pale shadow, eh, of the Revels.”

” It’s very attractive.”

” It has its points. Kelly Grange can offer you more in the way of comfort than the Revels, I do assure you. Wait until the winter and compare them. Our great fires keep the house warm. There are many draughty spots in the Revels. You’d need all the coal of Newcastle to keep that place warm in the winter.”

” It is so much easier with a smaller place.”

” Yet we are not exactly cramped. However, you shall see for yourself.”

The wheels crunched on a gravel drive and soon we had drawn up before the front porch, on either side of which were marble statues of women, decently draped, holding baskets in which geraniums and lob elias had been painted. There was a long marble seat on each side of the porch.

The door was opened by a parlour maid before we had reached it and I guessed that she had heard the sound of wheels in the drive. As we alighted, and the coachman drove off in the phaeton, I imagined this house full of servants all alert to anticipate Simon’s needs.

We went into a tiled hall from which rose a wide staircase. The house was built round this hall, and, standing in it, one could look up to the roof.

It was a large house of its kind but it seemed small and intimate when compared with the Revels.

Simon turned to me. ” If you will wait here a moment, I will go and tell my grandmother that you have arrived.” I watched him mount the stairs to the first-floor gallery, knock at a door and enter. In a few minutes he appeared and beckoned. I went up.

Simon stood aside for me to pass him and said with a certain amount of ceremony which may have held its mockery—I was not entirely sure of this”-Mrs. Gabriel Rockwell!”

I entered. It was a room crowded with heavy furniture; thick plush curtains as well as lace ones were held back by ornate brass fittings. There was a table in the centre of the room as well as several occasional tables; there was a horsehair sofa, a grandfather-clock, many chairs, cabinets containing china, a whatnot, an epergne filled with white and red roses.

But all this I took in at a glance, for it was the woman in the high-backed chair who demanded my attention.

This was Hagar Redvers, Rockwell-Redvers as she called herself, the autocrat of the schoolroom who had remained an autocrat all her life.

It was evident that she was tall, although she was sitting down; her back was very straight; her chair was no soft and comfortable one, but had a hard carved wood back; her white hair was piled high on her head and on it was a white lace cap. There were garnets in her ears and her dress of lavender-coloured satin was high at the throat where a lace collar was held in place by a garnet brooch to match the stones in her ears. An ebony stick with a gold top leaned against her chair; I gathered she needed it when she walked. Her eyes were bright blue; another version of Gabriel’s eyes, but there was none of Gabriel’s gentleness there; there was none of his delicacy in this woman. Her hands, resting on the carved wooden arms of the chair, must have been beautiful in her youth; they were still shapely, and I saw diamonds and garnets there.

For a few seconds we took the measure of each other. I, being conscious of a faint hostility, held my head a little higher than I normally should have done, and perhaps my voice held a trace of haughtiness as I said: ” Good afternoon, Mrs. RockwellRedvers.”

She held out a hand as though she were a queen and I a subject. I had a feeling that she expected me to go down on my knees before her.

Instead I coolly took the hand, bowed over it and relinquished it.

“It was good of you to come this afternoon,” she said. ” I had hoped you would come before.”

” It was your grandson who suggested that I should come this afternoon,” I told her.

“Ah!” her lips twitched a little, I fancied, with amusement ” We must not keep you standing,” she said.

Simon brought a chair for me and set it before the old lady. I was very close to her and facing what light could come through the lace curtains; she had her own face in shadow and I felt that even in this small way they had sought to place me at a disadvantage.

“You are no doubt thirsty after your drive,” she said, her keen eyes seeming to search through mine into my mind.

” It was a very short one.”

” It is a little early for tea, but on this occasion I think we will not wait.”

” I am quite happy to wait.”

She smiled at me, then turned to Simon.

“Ring the bell, grandson.”

Simon immediately obeyed.

“We shall have much to say to each other,” she went on, ” and what more comfortable way of saying it than over a cup of tea?”

The parlour maid whom I had seen before appeared, and the old lady said: ” Dawson, tea … please.”

” Yes, madam.”

The door was quietly shut.

” You will not wish to join us, Simon,” she said. ” We will excuse you.”

I was not sure whether she used the word royally or whether she meant that we should both prefer him not to be with us; but I did know that I had passed the first small test and that she had unbent slightly towards me. My appearance and manners evidently did not disgust her.

Simon said: “Very well. I’ll leave the two of you to become acquainted.”

” And be ready to drive Mrs. Rockwell back to the Revels at five o’clock.”

Simon surprised me by his acquiescence. He took her hand and kissed it and, although even then there was a certain mockery in his manner, I could see how she enjoyed this attention and that, although she tried to, she could not retain her autocratic manner with him.

We did not speak until the door closed on him; then she said: ” I had hoped to see you when you were at the Revels previously. I was unable at that time to corns to see you and HO i did not invite you because I felt certain that Gabriel would bring you to see me in due course. I am sure he would have done so had he lived. He was always conscious of his duty to the family.”

” I am sure he would.”

” I am glad that you are not one of those stupid modem girls who faint when any difficulty presents itself.”

” How can you know these things on such a short acquaintance I asked, because I was determined that she should treat me as an equal, as I had no intention of giving her the reverence she seemed to demand.

” My eyes are as sharp as they were at twenty. They have a great deal more experience to help them along than they had then. Moreover, Simon told me how admirably calm you were during that distressing time. I am sure you are not one of those foolish people who say: We must not talk of this or that. Things exist whether we talk of them or not; so why pretend they don’t by never mentioning them? Indeed, hiding the truth and making mysteries of straightforward events is the way to keep them alive. Do you agree?”

” I think there may be occasions when that is true.”

“I was pleased when I heard you had married Gabriel. He was always rather unstable. So many of the family are, I‘m afraid. No backbone, that’s the trouble.”

I looked at her erect figure and I permited myself a little joke. “

You evidently do not suffer from that complaint.”

She seemed rather pleased.

“What do you think of the Revels?” she asked.

” I found the house fascinating.”

“Ah! It is a wonderful place. There as not so many like it left in England. That’s why it is important that it should be in good hands.

My father was very capable. There have been Rockwells, you know, who almost ruined the place. A house . an estate like that needs constant care and attention if it is to remain in good repair.

Matthew could have been better. But a squire in his position should have dignity. There was always some woman. That’s bad. As for Gabriel he was a pleasant creature but weak. That was why I was gratified when I heard he had married a strong young woman. “

The tea arrived and the parlour maid hovered.

“Shall I pour, madam?” she asked.

” No, no, Dawson. Leave us.”

Dawson went away and she said to me: ” Would you care’ I'll to take charge of the tea-tray? I suffer from rheumatism and my joints are a little stiff today.”

I rose and went to the table on which the tray had been set. There was a silver kettle over a spirit lamp, and the teapot, cream jug and sugar bowl were all of shining silver. There were cucumber sandwiches, thin bread and butter, a seed cake and a variety of small cakes.

I had the feeling that I was being set yet another task to ascertain if I could perform this important social activity with grace. Really, I thought, she is an impossible woman; and yet I liked her in spite of herself and myself.

I knew that my colour was heightened a little, but apart from that I showed no sign of perturbation. I asked how she liked her tea and gave her the requisite amount of cream and sugar, carrying her cup over to her and setting it on the marble and gilt round table by her chair.

“Thank you,” she said graciously.

Then I offered her the sandwiches and bread and butter, to which she helped herself liberally.

I kept my place behind the tea-tray.

” I hope you will come to see me again,” she said, and I knew that her feelings for me were similar to mine for her. She had been prepared to be critical but something in our personalities matched.

I vaguely wondered whether in about seventy years’ time I should be just such an old lady.

She ate daintily and heartily and she talked as though there was so much to say that she feared she would never say half she wanted to.

She encouraged me to talk too and I told her how Gabriel and I had met when we had rescued Friday.

“Then you heard who he was, and that must have been pleasant for you.”

“Heard who he was?”

” That he was an extremely eligible young man, heir to a baronetcy, and that in due course the Revels would be his.”

Here it was again—the suggestion that I had married Gabriel for money and position. My anger would not be controlled.

“Nothing of the sort,” I said sharply.

“Gabriel and I decided to be married before we knew a great deal about each other’s worldly position.”

” Then you surprise me,” she said. ” I thought you were a sensible young woman.”

” I hope I am not a fool, but I never thought it was necessarily sensible to marry for money. Marriage to an incompatible person can be most unpleasant … even if that person is a rich one.”

She laughed and I could see that she was enjoying our encounter. She had made up her mind that she liked me ; what shocked me a little was that she would have liked me equally well if I had been a fortune-hunter. She liked what she called my strength. How they admired that quality in this family! Gabriel had been looking for it and found it in me. Simon had presumed that I had married Gabriel for his money. I wondered whether he also would have thought no less of me for that. These people expected one to be shrewd and clever sensible, they called it. No matter how callous, as long as you were not a fool, you were to be admired.