I overcame this vice in her. On the third day of our journey
I had her to light my pipematch with her own hands, and made her deliver
it to me with tears in her eyes; and at the 'Swan Inn' at Exeter I had
so completely subdued her, that she asked me humbly whether I would not
wish the landlady as well as the host to step up to dinner with us. To
this I should have had no objection, for, indeed, Mrs. Bonnyface was a
very good-looking woman; but we expected a visit from my Lord Bishop,
a kinsman of Lady Lyndon, and the BIENSEANCES did not permit the
indulgence of my wife's request. I appeared with her at evening service,
to compliment our right reverend cousin, and put her name down for
twenty-five guineas, and my own for one hundred, to the famous new organ
which was then being built for the cathedral. This conduct, at the very
outset of my career in the county, made me not a little popular; and
the residentiary canon, who did me the favour to sup with me at the inn,
went away after the sixth bottle, hiccuping the most solemn vows for the
welfare of such a p-p-pious gentleman.

Before we reached Hackton Castle, we had to drive through ten miles of
the Lyndon estates, where the people were out to visit us, the church
bells set a-ringing, the parson and the farmers assembled in their best
by the roadside, and the school children and the labouring people were
loud in their hurrahs for her Ladyship. I flung money among these worthy
characters, stopped to bow and chat with his reverence and the farmers,
and if I found that the Devonshire girls were among the handsomest in
the kingdom is it my fault? These remarks my Lady Lyndon especially
would take in great dudgeon; and I do believe she was made more angry by
my admiration of the red cheeks of Miss Betsy Quarringdon of Clumpton,
than by any previous speech or act of mine in the journey. 'Ah, ah, my
fine madam, you are jealous, are you?' thought I, and reflected, not
without deep sorrow, how lightly she herself had acted in her husband's
lifetime, and that those are most jealous who themselves give most cause
for jealousy.

Round Hackton village the scene of welcome was particularly gay: a band
of music had been brought from Plymouth, and arches and flags had been
raised, especially before the attorney's and the doctor's houses, who
were both in the employ of the family. There were many hundreds of stout
people at the great lodge, which, with the park-wall, bounds one side o