rector, the social head of the
district; and the rector was granted an interview, but Lady Camper was
not at home to General Ople. She is of superior station to me, and may
not wish to associate with me, the General modestly said. Nevertheless
he was wounded: for in spite of himself, and without the slightest wish
to obtrude his own person, as he explained the meaning that he had in
him, his rank in the British army forced him to be the representative
of it, in the absence of any one of a superior rank. So that he was
professionally hurt, and his heart being in his profession, it may be
honestly stated that he was wounded in his feelings, though he said no,
and insisted on the distinction. Once a day his walk for constitutional
exercise compelled him to pass before Lady Camper's windows, which were
not bashfully withdrawn, as he said humorously of Douro Lodge, in the
seclusion of half-pay, but bowed out imperiously, militarily, like a
generalissimo on horseback, and had full command of the road and levels
up to the swelling park-foliage. He went by at a smart stride, with a
delicate depression of his upright bearing, as though hastening to greet
a friend in view, whose hand was getting ready for the shake. This much
would have been observed by a housemaid; and considering his fine figure
and the peculiar shining silveriness of his hair, the acceleration of
his gait was noticeable. When he drove by, the pony's right ear was
flicked, to the extreme indignation of a mettlesome little animal. It
ensued in consequence that the General was borne flying under the eyes
of Lady Camper, and such pace displeasing him, he reduced it invariably
at a step or two beyond the corner of her grounds.

But neither he nor his daughter Elizabeth attached importance to so
trivial a circumstance. The General punctiliously avoided glancing at
the windows during the passage past them, whether in his wild career
or on foot. Elizabeth took a side-shot, as one looks at a wayside tree.
Their speech concerning Lady Camper was an exchange of commonplaces over
her loneliness: and this condition of hers was the more perplexing to
General Ople on his hearing from his daughter that the lady was very
fine-looking, and not so very old, as he had fancied eccentric ladies
must be. The rector's account of her, too, excited the mind. She had
informed him bluntly, that she now and then went to church to save
appearances, but was not a church-goer, finding it imp