ey are happy or not; and you
never can be quite sure what may be in his mind."

"He is not bound to the place at all--not like your father?"

"Oh, no," said Fanny, thinking perhaps that Mr. Saul might find himself
to be bound to the place, though not exactly with bonds similar to those
which kept her father there.

"If he found himself to be unhappy, he could go," said Florence.

"Oh, yes; he could go if he were unhappy," said Fanny. "That is, he
could go if he pleased."

Lady Clavering had come to the wedding; but no one else had been present
from the great house. Sir Hugh, indeed, was not at home; but, as the
rector truly observed, he might have been at home if he had so pleased.
"But he is a man," said the father to the son, "who always does a rude
thing if it be in his power. For myself, I care nothing for him, as he
knows. But he thinks that Mary would have liked to have seen him as the
head of the family, and therefore he does not come. He has greater skill
in making himself odious than any man I ever knew. As for her, they say
he's leading her a terrible life. And he's becoming so stingy about
money, too!"

"I hear that Archie is very heavy on him."

"I don't believe that he would allow any man to be heavy on him, as you
call it. Archie has means of his own, and I suppose has not run through
them yet. If Hugh has advanced him money, you may be sure that he has
security. As for Archie, he will come to an end very soon, if what I
hear is true. They tell me he is always at Newmarket, and he always
loses."

But though Sir Hugh was thus uncourteous to the rector and to the
rector's daughter, he was so far prepared to be civil to his cousin
Harry, that he allowed his wife to ask all the rectory family to dine up
at the house, in honor of Harry's sweetheart. Florence Burton was
specially invited, with Lady Clavering's sweetest smile. Florence, of
course, referred the matter to her hostess, but it was decided that they
should all accept the invitation. It was given, personally, after the
breakfast, and it is not always easy to decline invitations so given. It
may, I think, be doubted whether any man or woman has a right to give an
invitation in this way, and whether all invitations so given should not
be null and void, from the fact of the unfair advantage that has been
taken. The man who fires at a sitting bird is known to be no sportsman.
Now, the dinner-giver who catches his guest in an unguarded moment, and