MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 171 



velop similar prejudices in the future, were taken aside in 

 order that to their content a toast might be entrusted to 

 them. 



" Please look after Mrs. Dickinson, Mr. Morgan," Lavvy 

 said in a whisper, as she stepped by him to a seat half-way 

 down the table where she would be supported on either side 

 by a burly yeoman. 



A shadow of disappointment passed over Jack's good- 

 humoured face. " I hoped for better things," he said. " But 

 never mind, I'll do it ; she looks aggressive, but I have no 

 doubt she feels stiff." 



In his heart he once more wished Mrs. Dickinson at the 

 bottom of the sea. 



There was an easy dignity about Miss Badsworth as she 

 sat at the head of the table which caused Lady Flora Park- 

 field to grunt approval. 



" No, no, my dear," she had said, when requested to sit 

 near her hostess. " Don't put me in high places. I'll go a 

 little lower down ; you will be well supported." 



It so happened that she directly faced Mrs. Dickinson, by 

 whose side Jack Morgan dropped into a chair. 



Sir Gregory Sorter was on Miss Badsworth's right hand 

 and Mr. Ogden-Hooper on her left. Major Creswell, too, 

 was well up, but, his wife being present, he felt little inclina- 

 tion to spread himself. One spectre, from Lavvy's point of 

 view, was at the feast. Victor Bickersdyke, who, as Jack 

 Morgan had said, had taken a cottage in the neighbourhood 

 in order the more readily to watch events, had come over, 

 accompanied by a stranger, to note how his aunt got on and 

 what prospect there was of her carrying out the requirements 

 of the late Squire's Will. 



He was surprised, as were many others, at her " conduct 

 in the chair" ; but then they did not consider that meetings 

 possessed no terrors for Miss Badsworth, and the present 

 occasion, though it introduced strange elements, had a 

 reality about it which had sometimes been lacking in the 

 past. 



