The farmer and his wife surveyed Nell for a moment, then slowly averted their eyes out of regard for her blushes.

"I make so bold to tell your lordship that you never did a wiser thing in your life," said Styles quietly, and with a certain dignity; "and if the young lady be as good as she is pretty--and if I'm anything of a judge, I bet she be!--there's some sense in wishing your lordship and her a long life and every happiness."

Drake held out his hand, and laughed like a boy.

"Thanks, Styles," he said. "It was worth driving out for. And I'm happy enough, in all conscience, for the present."

"I've heard of Miss Lorton, and I've heard naught but good of her," said Mrs. Styles, eying Nell, who had got one of the children on her knee; "and to us as lives on the estate, miss, it's a matter of importance who his lordship marries. It may just mean the difference between good times or bad. Us don't want his lordship to marry a fine London lady as 'u'd never be contented to live among us. And there be many such."

Nell fought against her shyness; indeed, she remembered the simple folk of Shorne Mills, who talked as freely and frankly as this honest couple, and plucked up courage.

"I'm not a fine London lady, at any rate, Mrs. Styles," she said, with a smile. "I have lived for nearly all my life in a country village, much farther away from London than you are; and I know very little of London life."

"You don't say, miss!" exclaimed Mrs. Styles, much gratified.

"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing softly. "And I could finish making this apple pudding, if you'd let me, and boil it after I'd make it."

Mrs. Styles gazed at her in speechless admiration, and Drake laughed with keen enjoyment of her surprise.

"Oh, yes; Miss Lorton is an excellent cook and housekeeper, Mrs. Styles; so I hope you are satisfied?"

"That I be, and more, my lord," responded Mrs. Styles. "But, Lor'! your lordship do surprise me, for she looks no more than a schoolgirl--begging her pardon."

"Oh, she's wise for her years!" said Drake. "Yes, I'll have a gla.s.s of your home-brewed, Styles."

Mrs. Styles brought some milk and scones for Nell, and the two women withdrew to the settle and talked like old friends, while Drake, his eyes and attention straying to his beloved, discussed the burglary at the Hall with Styles. As Mrs. Styles' topic of conversation was Drake--Drake as a lad and a young man--Nell was in no hurry to go; but suddenly she remembered Falconer--he might be wanting her--and she got up and went to Drake, who, his beloved brier in his mouth, leaned back in an easy-chair and talked to the farmer as if time were of no consequence. He sprang up as she approached him.

"Well, good-by, Styles. I said you should dance at my wedding, and so you shall," he said.

"Thank you, my lord," he responded. "I'll do my best, but I thought your lordship was only joking. Here's a very good health to you, my lord, and your future lady."

"And G.o.d bless ye both," said Mrs. Styles, in the background.

They drove away in grand style, the mare insisting on putting on frills and standing on her hind legs; and Drake, when the mare had settled down to her swinging trot, stole his hand round Nell's waist, and pressed her to him.

"Do you know why I took you there this morning, Nell?" he said, in a low voice.

Nell shook her head shyly.

"I'll tell you. The sudden good fortune has seemed so unreal to me that I haven't been able to realize it, to grasp it. It wasn't enough for the countess to know and congratulate us--it wasn't enough, somehow. I wanted some of the people on the estate to see you, and, so to speak, set their seal on our engagement and approaching marriage. Do you understand, dearest? I'm not making it very plain, I'm afraid."

But Nell understood, and her heart was br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with love for him.

"You have been accepted this morning into the--family, as it were," he said. "And now I feel as if it were impossible that I should lose you again. Styles will go down to the inn to-night and talk about our visit, and give a detailed account of the 'new ladyship,' and everybody on the estate will know of my good fortune. It is almost as if"--he paused, and the color rose to his face--"as if we were married, Nell. I feel that nothing can separate us now."

She said not a word, but she pressed a little closer to him, and he bent and kissed her.

"You don't mind my taking you to the Styles', dearest?" he asked.

"No, oh, no!" she replied. "I would rather have gone there than to any of the big houses--I mean the county people, Drake. I like to think I am not the sort of person they dreaded. What was it? 'A fine London lady.'

Perhaps it would be better for you if I were; but for them--well, perhaps for them it will be better that I am only one of themselves, able to understand and sympathize with them. Drake, you will not forget that I am only a n.o.body, that I am only Nell of Shorne Mills."

He smiled to himself, for he knew that this girl whom he had won was, by virtue of her beauty and refinement, qualified to fill the highest place in that vague sphere which went by the name of "society."

"Don't you worry, dearest," he said. "You have won the heart of the Styles family; and that is no mean conquest. That farm on the right is the Woodlands, and that just in front is the Broadlands. You will learn all the names in time, and I want you to know them; I want you to feel that you have a part and lot in them. Nell, do you think you will ever be as fond of this place as you are of Shorne Mills?"

"Yes," she said; "because--it is yours, Drake."

He looked down at her gratefully.

"But you shan't lose Shorne Mills," he said resolutely. "I mean to buy some land there, and build a house, just on the brow of the hill--you know, Nell; that meadow above The Cottage?--and we'll go there every summer, and we'll sail the _Annie Laurie_."

So they talked, with intervals of silence filled with his caresses, until they reached the lodge. And as they came up to it, they heard the strains of a violin.

Nell awoke with a start.

"Oh, I had almost forgotten!" she said remorsefully.

"Listen!" Drake whispered.

Nell, in the act of pushing the dust cloak from her, listened.

Falconer was playing the "Gloria in Excelsis."

"Oh, how happy I have been!" she murmured, half guiltily.

"And how happy you will be, Heaven grant it, dearest!" Drake murmured, as he released her hand and she got down.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

"Nell, I believe you are nervous! You're not? Very well; then stand up and look me in the face, and say 'Mesopotamia' seven times!"

It was the night of the dinner party at the Hall, at which, as d.i.c.k put it, she was to be "on view" as the fiancee of my lord of Angleford, and Nell had come down to the little sitting room dressed and ready to start.

d.i.c.k and Falconer were also ready, for Falconer had recovered sufficiently to be present, and had voluntarily offered to take his violin with him.

"Don't tease her, d.i.c.k," said Falconer, with the gentle, protective air of an elder brother. "She does not look a bit nervous."

"But I am!" said Nell, laughing a little tremulously; "I am--just a little bit!"

"And no wonder!" said Falconer promptly. "It is rather an ordeal she has to go through; to know that everybody is regarding you critically. But she has nothing to be afraid of."

"Now, there I differ with you," said d.i.c.k argumentatively. "If I were in Nell's place I should feel that everybody was thinking: 'What on earth did Lord Angleford see in that slip of a girl to fall in love with?' Ah, would you?" as Nell, laughing and blushing, caught up the sofa cushion.

"You throw it and rumple my best hair, if you dare."