m uncomfortable in London, while his fastidiousness made him
uncomfortable in the country. He was _rather_ a great person, but he
wanted to be a _very_ great person. This he was at Lisle Court; but that
did not satisfy him. He wanted not only to be a very great person, but
a very great person among very great persons--and squires and parsons
bored him. Lady Julia, his wife, was a fine lady, inane and pretty, who
saw everything through her husband's eyes. He was quite master _chez
lui_, was Colonel Maltravers! He lived a great deal abroad; for on the
Continent his large income seemed princely, while his high character,
thorough breeding, and personal advantages, which were remarkable,
secured him a greater position in foreign courts than at his own. Two
things had greatly disgusted him with Lisle Court,--trifles they might
be with others, but they were not trifles to Cuthbert Maltravers; in the
first place, a man who had been his father's attorney, and who was
the very incarnation of coarse unrepellable familiarity, had bought an
estate close by the said Lisle Court, and had, _horresco referens_,
been made a baronet! Sir Gregory Gubbins took precedence of Colonel
Maltravers! He could not ride out but he met Sir Gregory; he could not
dine out but he had the pleasure of walking behind Sir Gregory's bright
blue coat with its bright brass buttons. In his last visit to Lisle
Court, which he had then crowded with all manner of fine people, he
had seen--the very first morning after his arrival--seen from the large
window of his state saloon, a great staring white, red, blue, and gilt
thing, at the end of the stately avenue planted by Sir Guy Maltravers
in honour of the victory over the Spanish armada. He looked in mute
surprise, and everybody else looked; and a polite German count, gazing
through his eye-glass, said, "Ah! dat is vat you call a vim in your
_pays_,--the vim of Colonel Maltravers!"

This "vim" was the pagoda summer-house of Sir Gregory Gubbins, erected
in imitation of the Pavilion at Brighton. Colonel Maltravers was
miserable: the _vim_ haunted him; it seemed ubiquitous; he could not
escape it,--it was built on the highest spot in the county. Ride, walk,
sit where he would, the _vim_ stared at him; and he thought he saw
little mandarins shake their round little heads at him. This was one
of the great curses of Lisle Court; the other was yet more galling. The
owners of Lisle Court had for several generations possess