f Groby. Mr. Joseph Mason of Groby was quite as rich a man as Sir
Peregrine, and owned an estate which was nearly as large as The
Cleeve property; but Sir Peregrine would not allow that he was a
gentleman, or that he could by any possible transformation become
one. He had not probably ever said so in direct words to any of the
Mason family, but his opinion on the matter had in some way worked
its way down to Yorkshire, and therefore there was no love to spare
between these two county magistrates. There had been a slight
acquaintance between Sir Peregrine and Sir Joseph; but the ladies of
the two families had never met till after the death of the latter.
Then, while that trial was still pending, Mrs. Orme had come forward
at the instigation of her father-in-law, and by degrees there had
grown up an intimacy between the two widows. When the first offers
of assistance were made and accepted, Sir Peregrine no doubt did
not at all dream of any such result as this. His family pride, and
especially the pride which he took in his widowed daughter-in-law,
would probably have been shocked by such a surmise; but,
nevertheless, he had seen the friendship grow and increase without
alarm. He himself had become attached to Lady Mason, and had
gradually learned to excuse in her that want of gentle blood and
early breeding which as a rule he regarded as necessary to a
gentleman, and from which alone, as he thought, could spring many of
those excellences which go to form the character of a lady.

It may therefore be asserted that Lady Mason's widowed life was
successful. That it was prudent and well conducted no one could
doubt. Her neighbours of course did say of her that she would not
drink tea with Mrs. Arkwright of Mount Pleasant villa because she was
allowed the privilege of entering Sir Peregrine's drawing-room; but
such little scandal as this was a matter of course. Let one live
according to any possible or impossible rule, yet some offence will
be given in some quarter. Those who knew anything of Lady Mason's
private life were aware that she did not encroach on Sir Peregrine's
hospitality. She was not at The Cleeve as much as circumstances would
have justified, and at one time by no means so much as Mrs. Orme
would have desired.

In person she was tall and comely. When Sir Joseph had brought her
to his house she had been very fair,--tall, slight, fair, and very
quiet,--not possessing that loveliness which is generally most
att