'Surely she is woman enough to be fussed a little about her marriage?'
'Oh, dear, no! she takes the whole affair with a queenlike and supernatural indifference. She is either a fool or a very great philosopher, and there is something grand in the serene obscurity that envelopes her,' and Rachel laughed a very little.
'I must, I suppose, pay my respects; but to-morrow will be time enough. What pretty little tea-cups, Radie--quite charming--old cock china, isn't it? These were Aunt Jemima's, I think.'
'Yes; they used to stand on the little marble table between the windows.'
Old Tamar had glided in while they here talking, and placed the little tea equipage on the table unnoticed, and the captain was sipping his cup of tea, and inspecting the pattern, while his sister amused him.
'This place, I suppose, is confoundedly slow, is not it? Do they entertain the neighbours ever at Brandon?'
'Sometimes, when old Lady Chelford and her son are staying there.'
'But the neighbours can't entertain them, I fancy, or you. What a dreary thing a dinner party made up of such people must be--like "Aesop's Fables," where the cows and sheep converse.'
'And sometimes a wolf or a fox,' she said.
'Well, Radie, I know you mean me; but as you wish it, I'll carry my fangs elsewhere;--and what has become of Will Wylder?'
'Quite right--the only thing he was fit for;' and Captain Lake laughed like a man who enjoys a joke slily. 'And where is poor Billy quartered?'
'Not quite half a mile away; he has got the vicarage of Naunton Friars.'
'Oh, then, Will is not quite such a fool as we took him for.'
'It is worth just £180 a year! but he's very far from a fool.'
'Yes, of course, he knows Greek poets and Latin fathers, and all the rest of it. I don't mean he ever was plucked. I dare say he's the kind of fellow _you'd_ like very well, Radie.' And his sly eyes had a twinkle in them which seemed to say, 'Perhaps I've divined your secret.'
'And so I do, and I like his wife, too, _very_ much.'
'His wife! So William has married on £180 a year;' and the captain laughed quietly but very pleasantly again.
'On a very little more, at all events; and I think they are about the happiest, and I'm sure they are the best people in this part of the world.'