The Wroxg Man 141 



to be rather dissatisfied and supercilious, she did not 

 gratify her parent by expressing any admiration for his 

 purchase. Matilda had refused many offers, it is true, 

 but none from the right sort of people ; and it was partly 

 to give her a chance in a new sphere that her father had 

 bought the Towers — not, indeed, that he was very fond of 

 his daughter, but a well-connected son-in-law would, he 

 felt, give him prestige and a certain sort of position. 



Mr. Higgs, shrewder than his daughter, knew more 

 about county society than she did. He had seen what 

 happened in the case of his old friend, Thompson, the 

 ' eminent provision merchant,' who had determined to be 

 a country gentleman, and had not found the process of 

 conversion easy. Thompson had set himself to work his 

 way into society down the throats of its members— that 

 is to say, he took a really good cook down to Essex with 

 him, stocked his cellar regardless of expense, and invited 

 everybody he met to dinner — everybody, of course, who 

 was anybody. The wine was what he said it was, and 

 cost what he said it did ; he always told people what 

 they were drinking, and what it ' stood him in,' to use 

 his own phrase ; but after two years of it he could not 

 disguise from himself that it was not a success. He had 

 dined in other people's houses, but had not felt comfort- 

 able there. What he should say to the lady he took down 

 was a mental problem which grievously perplexed him 

 for three days before an approaching festivity ; for he 

 knew that he must say something, and he did not know 

 what ; moreover, conversation, when it did begin, some- 

 how or other never interested him. Mr. Higgs had been 

 invited down to see his friend's splendour, but had grasped 

 the real position of affairs ; and, indeed, Thompson had 

 confided to him that the people round about were * a 



