and his doctrines been accepted as orthodox. Lord
Mowbray suited him; he liked the consideration of so great a personage.
Lord Marney also really liked pomp; a curious table and a luxurious
life; but he liked them under any roof rather than his own. Not that he
was what is commonly called a Screw; that is to say he was not a
mere screw; but he was acute and malicious; saw everybody's worth and
position at a glance; could not bear to expend his choice wines and
costly viands on hangers-on and toad-eaters, though at the same time no
man encouraged and required hangers-on and toad-eaters more. Lord
Marney had all the petty social vices, and none of those petty social
weaknesses which soften their harshness or their hideousness. To receive
a prince of the blood or a great peer he would spare nothing. Had he to
fulfil any of the public duties of his station, his performance would
baffle criticism. But he enjoyed making the Vicar of Marney or Captain
Grouse drink some claret that was on the wane, or praise a bottle of
Burgundy that he knew was pricked.

Little things affect little minds. Lord Marney rose in no very good
humour; he was kept at the station, which aggravated his spleen. During
his journey on the railroad he spoke little, and though he more than
once laboured to get up a controversy he was unable, for Lady Marney,
who rather dreaded her dull home, and was not yet in a tone of mind that
could hail the presence of the little Poinsett as full compensation for
the brilliant circle of Mowbray, replied in amiable monosyllables, and
Egremont himself in austere ones, for he was musing over Sybil Gerard
and a thousand things as wild and sweet.

Everything went wrong this day. Even Captain Grouse was not at the Abbey
to welcome them back. He was playing in a cricket match, Marney against
Marham. Nothing else would have induced him to be absent. So it happened
that the three fellow-travellers had to dine together, utterly weary of
themselves and of each other. Captain Grouse was never more wanted; he
would have amused Lord Marney, relieved his wife and brother, reported
all that had been said and done in their neighbourhood during their
absence, introduced a new tone, and effected a happy diversion. Leaving
Mowbray, detained at the station, Grouse away, some disagreeable
letters, or letters which an ill-humoured man chooses to esteem
disagreeable, seemed to announce a climax. Lord Marney ordered the
dinner to be served in