When Ayala went to Stalham Captain Batsby went to Merle Park. They had both been invited by Lady Tringle, and when the letter was written to Ayala she was assured that Tom should not be there. At that time Tom’s last encounter with the police had not as yet become known to the Tringles, and the necessity of keeping Tom at the house in the country was not manifest. The idea had been that Captain Batsby should have an opportunity of explaining himself to Ayala. The Captain came; but, as to Ayala, Mrs Dosett sent word to say that she had been invited to stay some days just at that time with her friend Lady Albury at Stalham.

What to do with Captain Batsby had been felt to be a difficulty by Lady Albury. It was his habit to come to Stalham some time in March and there finish the hunting season. It might be hoped that Ayala’s little affair might be arranged early in March, and then, whether he came or whether he did not, it would be the same to Ayala. But the Captain himself would be grievously irate when he should hear the trick which would have been played upon him. Lady Albury had already desired him not to come till after the first week in March, having fabricated an excuse. She had been bound to keep the coast clear both for Ayala’s sake and the Colonel’s; but she knew that when her trick should be discovered there would be unmeasured wrath. “Why the deuce don’t you let the two men come and then the best man may win!” said Sir Harry who did not doubt but that, in such a case, the Colonel would prove to be the best man. Here too there was another difficulty. When Lady Albury attempted to explain that Ayala would not come unless she were told that she would not meet the Captain, Sir Harry declared that there should be no such favour. “Who the deuce is this little girl,” he asked, “that everybody should be knocked about in this way for her?” Lady Albury was able to pacify the husband, but she feared that any pacifying of the Captain would be impossible. There would be a family quarrel — but even that must be endured for the Colonel’s sake.

In the meantime the Captain was kept in absolute ignorance of Ayala’s movements, and went down to Merle Park hoping to meet her there. He must have been very much in love, for Merle Park was by no means a spot well adapted for hunting. Hounds there were in the neighbourhood, but he turned up his nose at the offer when Sir Thomas suggested that he might bring down a hunter. Captain Batsby, when he went on hunting expeditions, never stirred without five horses, and always confined his operations to six or seven favoured counties. But Ayala just at present was more to him than hunting, and therefore, though it was now the end of February, he went to Merle Park.

“It was all Sir Thomas’s doing.” It was thus that Lady Tringle endeavoured to console herself when discussing the matter with her daughters. The Honourable Septimus Traffick had now gone up to London, and was inhabiting a single room in the neighbourhood of the House. Augusta was still at Merle Park, much to the disgust of her father. He did not like to tell her to be gone; and would indeed have been glad enough of her presence had it not been embittered by the feeling that he was being “done”. But there she remained, and in discussing the affairs of the Captain with her mother and Gertrude was altogether averse to the suggested marriage for Ayala. To her thinking Ayala was not entitled to a husband at all. Augusta had never given way in the affair of Tom — had declared her conviction that Stubbs had never been in earnest;, and was of opinion that Captain Batsby would be much better off at Merle Park without Ayala than he would have been in that young lady’s presence. When he arrived nothing was said to him at once about Ayala. Gertrude, who recovered from the great sickness occasioned by Mr Houston’s misconduct, though the recovery was intended only to be temporary, made herself as pleasant as possible. Captain Batsby was made welcome, and remained three days before he sought an opportunity of asking a question about Ayala.

During this time he found Gertrude to be a very agreeable companion, but he made Mrs Traffick his first confidant. “Well, you know, Captain Batsby, to tell you the truth, we are not very fond of our cousin.”

“Sir Thomas told me she was to be here.”

“So we know. My father is perhaps a little mistaken about Ayala.”

“Was she not asked?” demanded Captain Batsby, beginning to think that he had been betrayed.

“Oh, yes; she was asked. She has been asked very often, because she is mamma’s niece, and did live with us once for a short time. But she did not come. In fact she won’t go anywhere, unless — ”

“Unless what?”

“You know Colonel Stubbs?”

“Jonathan Stubbs. Oh dear, yes; very intimately. He is a sort of connection of mine. He is my half-brother’s second cousin by the father’s side.”

“Oh indeed! Does that make him very near?”

“Not at all. I don’t like him, if you mean that. He always takes everything upon himself down at Stalham.”

“What we hear is that Ayala is always running after him.”

“Ayala running after Jonathan?”

“Haven’t you heard of that?” asked Mrs Traffick. “Why — she is at Stalham with the Alburys this moment, and I do not doubt that Colonel Stubbs is there also. She would not have gone had she not been sure of meeting him.”

This disturbed the Captain so violently that for two or three hours he kept himself apart, not knowing what to do with himself or where to betake himself. Could this be true about Jonathan Stubbs? There had been moments of deep jealousy down at Stalham; but then he had recovered from that, having assured himself that he was wrong. It had been Larry Twentyman and not Jonathan Stubbs who had led the two girls over the brook — into which Stubbs had simply fallen, making himself an object of pity. But now again the Captain believed it all. It was on this account, then, that his half-sister-in-law, Rosaline, had desired him to stay away from Stalham for the present! He knew well how high in favour with Lady Albury was that traitor Stubbs; how it was by her favour that Stubbs, who was no more than a second cousin, was allowed to do just what be pleased in the stables, while Sir Harry himself, the Master of the Hounds, confined himself to the kennel! He was determined at first to leave Merle Park and start instantly for Stalham, and had sent for his servant to begin the packing of his things; but as he thought of it more maturely he considered that his arrival at Stalham would be very painful to himself as well as to others. For the others he did not much care, but he saw clearly that the pain to himself would be very disagreeable. No one at Stalham would be glad to see him. Sir Harry would be disturbed, and the other three persons with whom he was concerned — Lady Albury, Stubbs, and Ayala — would be banded together in hostility against him. What chance would he have under such circumstances? Therefore he determined that he would stay at Merle Park yet a little longer.

And, after all, was Ayala worth the trouble which he had proposed to take for her? How much had he offered her, how scornfully had his offer been received, and how little had she to give him in return! And now he had been told that she was always running after Jonathan Stubbs! Could it be worth his while to run after a girl who was always running after Jonathan Stubbs? Was he not much higher in the world than Jonathan Stubbs, seeing that he had, at any rate, double Stubbs’s income? Stubbs was a red-haired, ugly, impudent fellow, who made his way wherever he went simply by “cheek’! Upon reflection, he found that it would be quite beneath him to run after any girl who could so demean herself as to run after Jonathan Stubbs. Therefore he came down to dinner on that evening with all his smiles, and said not a word about Ayala to Sir Thomas, who had just returned from London.

“Is he very much provoked?” Sir Thomas asked his wife that evening.

“Provoked about what?”

“He was expressly told that he would meet Ayala here.”

“He seems to be making himself very comfortable, and hasn’t said a word to me about Ayala. I am sick of Ayala. Poor Tom is going to be really ill.” Then Sir Thomas frowned, and said nothing more on that occasion.

Tom was certainly in an uncomfortable position, and never left his bed till after noon. Then he would mope about the place, moping even worse than he did before, and would spend the evening all alone in the housekeeper’s room, with a pipe in his mouth, which he seemed hardly able to take the trouble to keep alight. There were three or four other guests in the house, including two honourable Miss Trafficks, and a couple of young men out of the City, whom Lady Tringle hoped might act as antidotes to Houston and Hamel. But with none of them would Tom associate. With Captain Batsby he did form some little intimacy; driven to it, no doubt, by a community of interest. “I believe you were acquainted with my cousin, Miss Dormer, at Stalham?” asked Tom. At that moment the two were sitting over the fire in the housekeeper’s room, and Captain Batsby was smoking a cigar, while Tom was sucking an empty pipe.

“Oh, yes,” said Captain Batsby, pricking up his ears, “I saw a good deal of her.”

“A wonderful creature!” ejaculated Tom.

“Yes, indeed!”

“For a real romantic style of beauty, I don’t suppose that the world ever saw her like before. Did you?”

“Are you one among your cousin’s admirers?” demanded the Captain.

“Am I?” asked Tom, surprised that there should be anybody who had not............