"I can't ask you if you like this place. You 're too newly come to answer that question," resumed he; "but I may ask what is the sort of society you prefer?"
"I 've seen next to nothing of the world since I left the University. I have been living these last four or five years in one of the least visited spots in Great Britain, and only since the arrival of the Bramleigh family had a neighbor to speak to."
"Ah, then, you know these Bramleighs?" said the other with more animation than he had yet displayed. "Overbearing people, I 've heard they were--very rich, and insolent to a degree."
"I must say I have found them everything that was kind and considerate, hospitable neighbors, and very warmhearted friends."
"That 's not the world's judgment on them, my dear sir--far from it. They are a proverb for pretension and impertinence. As for Lady Augusta here--to be sure she 's only one of them by marriage--but there's not a soul in the place she has not outraged. She goes nowhere--of course, _that_ she has a right to do--but she never returns a call, never even sends a card. She went so far as to tell Mr. Pemberton, your predecessor here, that she liked Albano for its savagery; that there was no one to know was its chief charm for her."
"I saw her for the first time this morning," said L'Estrange, not liking to involve himself in this censure.
"And she fascinated you, of course? I 'm told she does that with every good-looking young fellow that comes in her way. She's a finished coquette, they say. I don't know what that means, nor do I believe it would have much success with me if I did know. All the coquetry she bestows upon me is to set my ponies off in full gallop whenever she overtakes me driving. She starts away in a sharp canter just behind me, and John Bright fancies it a race, and away he goes too, and if Mr. Needham was of the same mettle I don't know what would become of us. I'm afraid, besides, she's a connection of mine. My mother, Lady Marion, was cousin to one of the Delahunts of Kings Cromer. Would you mind taking the reins for a while, John is fearfully rash to-day? Just sit where you are, the near-side gives you the whip-hand for Needham. Ah! that's a relief! Turn down the next road on your left. And so she never asked you about your tenets--never inquired whether you were High Church or Low Church or no church at all?"