in tight and very-much-oiled curls on his forehead
and round his ears. He wore a high neckcloth, tied evidently with much
care, supporting his retreating chin. His coat was of Lincoln green,
very short in the waist, with large silver buttons, and turned back with
a wide collar to display two waistcoats, the white one only showing an
edge beyond the darker one of deep salmon-colour, which opened to set
off a frilled shirt. The trousers were tight, and caught at the ankles
by straps, and his shoes were tied with large bows. The servile
imitators of "the first gentleman in Europe" followed in his steps with
as much precision as possible, and Melville Falconer spared no pains to
let the county folk of Somersetshire see what the real scion of _bon
ton_ looked like.

Melville had a pleasant, weak face; he was almost entirely forgetful of
the interests or tastes of anyone but himself, and he had never given up
his own wishes for the sake of another in his life.

He had a ridiculous idea of his own importance, and a supreme contempt
for what he called old-fashioned usage; from the vantage-ground of
superior wisdom he looked down on the county gentry of Somersetshire,
who, in those days, did not frequent London in the season, or tread hard
on the heels of the nobility in all their customs, as is now the case.

The great mercantile wealth which rose into colossal importance, when
railway traffic brought the small towns near the large ones, and the
large ones near the metropolis, had not begun to overshadow the land;
the tide of speculation had not set in; and there was less hastening to
be rich and desire to display all that riches could give. It was a time
of comparative stagnation, which preceded the great rush, which was to
bear on its tide, as the stream of progress and discovery gathered
strength, the next generation with relentless power. Of all that lay
outside Fair Acres, Mrs. Falconer was almost indifferent, if not
ignorant. She liked things as they were, and was averse to change, lest
that change should be for the worse. Her tongue, which was a sharp one,
had been swift to condemn the establishment of the schools in her
neighbourhood, and she resisted all invitations from her husband to make
the acquaintance of Mrs. Hannah More. Teaching lads and lasses to read
and write was, in the opinion of Mrs. Falconer, a crying evil. They had
enough learning if they kept their church once a week, and as to
arithmetic, if they c