"I don't know," said Molly, startled at being thus appealed to.
"Well! it was some time before King Alfred, because he was the
King of all England, you know; but, as I was saying, here am I, of
as good and as old a descent as any man in England, and I doubt
if a stranger, to look at me, would take me for a gentleman, with
my red face, great hands and feet, and thick figure, fourteen
stone, and never less than twelve even when I was a young man; and
there's Osborne, who takes after his mother, who couldn't tell her
great-grandfather from Adam, bless her; and Osborne has a girl's
delicate face, and a slight make, and hands and feet as small as a
lady's. He takes after madam's side, who, as I said, can't tell who
was her grandfather. Now, Roger is like me, a Hamley of Hamley, and
no one who sees him in the street will ever think that red-brown,
big-boned, clumsy chap is of gentle blood. Yet all those Cumnor
people, you make such ado of in Hollingford, are mere muck of
yesterday. I was talking to madam the other day about Osborne's
marrying a daughter of Lord Hollingford's--that's to say, if he had
a daughter--he's only got boys, as it happens; but I'm not sure if
I should consent to it. I really am not sure; for you see Osborne
will have had a first-rate education, and his family dates from the
Heptarchy, while I should be glad to know where the Cumnor folk were
in the time of Queen Anne?" He walked on, pondering the question of
whether he could have given his consent to this impossible marriage;
and after some time, and when Molly had quite forgotten the subject
to which he alluded, he broke out with--"No! I'm sure I should have
looked higher. So, perhaps, it's as well my Lord Hollingford has only
boys."
After a while, he thanked Molly for her companionship, with
old-fashioned courtesy; and told her that he thought, by this time,
madam would be up and dressed, and glad to have her young visitor
with her. He pointed out the deep purple house, with its stone
facings, as it was seen at some distance between the trees, and
watched her protectingly on her way along the field-paths.
"That's a nice girl of Gibson's," quoth he to himself. "But what a
tight hold the wench got of the notion of his marrying again! One had
need be on one's guard as to what one says before her. To think of
her never having thought of the chance of a stepmother. To be sure, a
stepmother to a girl is a different thing to a second wife to a man!"