Old Lady Chelford's bitter and ominous acquiescence also came, and the
presence of mother and son at the solemnity averted the family scandal
which the old lady's first access of frenzy threatened.

This duty discharged, she insisted, in the interest of her rheumatism,
upon change of air; and on arriving at Duxley, was quite surprised to
find Lady Dulhampton and her daughters there upon a similar quest.

About the matrimonial likelihoods of gentlemen with titles and estates
Fame, that most tuft-hunting of divinities, is always distending her
cheeks, and blowing the very finest flourishes her old trumpet affords.

Lord Chelford was not long away when the story of Lady Constance was
again alive and vocal. It reached old Jackson through his sister, who was
married to the brother of the Marquis of Dulhampton's solicitor. It
reached Lake from Tom Twitters, of his club, who kept the Brandon Captain
_au courant_ of the town-talk; and it came to Dorcas in a more authentic
fashion, though mysteriously, and rather in the guise of a conundrum than
of a distinct bit of family intelligence, from no less a person than the
old Dowager Lady Chelford herself.

Stanley Lake, who had begun to entertain hopes for Rachel in that
direction, went down to Redman's Farm, and, after his bleak and bitter
fashion, rated the young lady for having perversely neglected her
opportunities and repulsed that most desirable _parti_. In this he was
intensely in earnest, for the connection would have done wonders for
Captain Lake in the county.

Rachel met this coarse attack with quiet contempt; told him that Lord