"The church party," said Mrs Gabriel, disdainfully. She had no love for Tempest, whom she regarded as half insane, nor for Sibyl, who was too beautiful for womanly taste, nor for Raston, who had frequently fought her on questions connected with parish affairs.

"By the way," said Leo, who had been meditating, "why has Mr Pratt settled in these parts? I should think he found it dull."

Mrs Gabriel smiled contemptuously. "Mr Pratt is not a foolish young man like someone I know," she said; "he does not find pleasure in the follies of the Town. For my part, I think he is wise to settle here in his old age. He is a delightful neighbour and a pleasant companion."

"He is all that," a.s.sented Leo, heartily. He liked Pratt. "You have known him for many years, mother?"

"For ten or twelve," replied Mrs Gabriel, carelessly. "I met him in Vienna, I think, and he called on me when I returned to London.

Afterwards he came down here and fell in love with the place. For years he has been a rolling stone, but always said that when he settled down he would come to Colester. He is liked, is he not, Leo?"

"He is more than liked. He is immensely popular--with our friends, if not with the villagers. You have done a good deed in introducing him to our dull parish."

"I don't think Mr Pratt, who has so many resources in himself, finds it dull, my dear. However, I shall be glad to accept the invitation to his dinner. I should like to see him married."

"Indeed! Have you chosen him a wife also?"

Mrs Gabriel laughed. "I thought he might take a fancy to Sibyl Tempest."

"Why, he's old enough to be her father. Besides--"

"Besides you love her," finished Mrs Gabriel, with a shrug. "Well, do not get angry, Leo. I should like to see Mr Pratt marry Sybil and you the husband of Edith Hale. Then everything would be right."

"I don't think so at all," commenced Haverleigh in vexed tones. "But don't let us quarrel any more. I have the greatest regard for Pratt, but I do not care to go the length of letting him marry the girl I love."

"You know very little of Mr Pratt," said Mrs Gabriel, looking suddenly at the young man, "how, then, can you regard him so--"

"Oh, I have seen him often in Town," broke in Leo; "sometimes when I was in difficulties and did not want to tell you Pratt helped me."

"With money?" asked Mrs Gabriel, sharply.

"Of course with money. But I paid him back."

Mrs Gabriel made no answer, but, rising suddenly, pa.s.sed out of the room, and left Leo eating his luncheon alone. Her usually calm face looked disturbed and her hands were restless. Leo's information had annoyed her.

"What does Pratt mean?" she asked herself. "Can't he leave the boy alone after all these years? I wonder--" She broke off and pressed her hand to her heart as though she there felt a cruel pain. Perhaps she did, but Mrs Gabriel was not the woman to show it.

CHAPTER IV

THE DINNER-PARTY

Built on the lower slopes of the Castle Hill, Mr Pratt's residence, commonly known as The Nun's House, stood a little distance back from the highway which led down to King's-meadows. It was a plain, rough stone building of great strength, two storeys in height, and with a high roof of slate. Gloomy in the extreme, it was rendered still more so from its being encircled by a grove of yew trees which gave it a churchyard air.

Not the kind of residence one would have thought attractive to a cheerful and dapper man like Richard Pratt. But he had, so he declared, fallen in love with it at first sight, and Mrs Gabriel, always having an eye to business, had only too readily granted him a seven years' lease.

She was delighted at the chance of securing a tenant, as the house had been empty for a long time owing to its uncomfortable reputation. There was not a man, woman or child in Colester that did not know it was haunted.

The name came from a tradition, probably a true one, that when the Colester convent had been suppressed by Henry VIII., the evicted nuns had found refuge in this dismal house, a dozen of them. In time they died, and the mansion was inhabited by other people. But queer sounds were heard, strange sights were seen, and it became known that the twelve nuns re-visited the scene of their exile. There never was a house so populated with ghosts; and the tenants promptly departed. Others, lured by a low rent, came, and after a month's trial departed also.

Finally no one would stop in the ill-omened mansion until Mr Pratt arrived. He liked the place, laughed at the gruesome reputation of the dwelling, and announced his intention of making it his home.

"Ghosts!" laughed Pratt, with his cheery smile. "Nonsense. Ghosts went out with gas. Besides, I should rather like to see a ghost, particularly of a nun. I am partial to the fair s.e.x."

"I wonder, then, you never married," said the person who had warned him against the house, with the best intentions, of course.

Pratt looked at her--she was Mrs Bathurst, the gossip of the neighbourhood--under half-closed eye-lids, and smiled. "Ah!" said he, rubbing his plump white hands, "I have admired so many beautiful women, dear lady, that I could not remain constant to one;" which reason, although plausible, did not satisfy Mrs Bathurst. But then she was one of those amiable persons always willing to believe the worst of people.

However, Pratt took up his abode in the chief Colester inn, and sent for cartloads of furniture, while the house was being re-decorated. He took a deal of trouble to make it comfortable, and as he was a man of excellent taste, with an eye for colour, he succeeded in making it pretty as well. In six weeks the place was ready to receive him, and up to the period of his walk with the vicar, Pratt had occupied it for another six without being disturbed by the numerous ghosts. The Colester folks quite expected to hear that he had been carried off like Dr Faust, and were rather disappointed that he met with no ghostly adventure. But then Mr Pratt, as he said himself, was not imaginative enough for spectres.

Failing his leaving the house, the gentry expected that he would entertain them and show his treasures, for it was reported that he had many beautiful things. But Pratt was in no hurry. He wanted first to study his neighbours in order to see who were the most pleasant. In a surprisingly short time he got to know something about everyone, and on the knowledge thus acquired he selected his guests. In addition to those already mentioned, he invited Mrs Bathurst and her daughter Peggy. The girl was pretty and the mother talkative, so, in Pratt's opinion, it paid to ask them. "There is no chance of an entertainment being dull if Mrs Bathurst has her legs under the table," he said, and this being reported to the lady, she accused Pratt of coa.r.s.eness. Nevertheless, she accepted the invitation. Not for worlds would Mrs Bathurst have missed a sight of re-decorated Nun's House. Besides, it was her duty to go. She supplied all the gossip of the neighbourhood.

Anxious to see as much as possible of the house, Mrs Bathurst was the first to arrive. Pratt, in a particularly neat evening dress, advanced to meet her and Peggy with a smile. He knew very well that her ungovernable curiosity had led her to be thus early. "I am glad to see you, Mrs Bathurst," he said genially; "pray sit down. You are the first to arrive."

"I always like to be punctual," responded the lady, nodding to her daughter that she also should be seated. "Dear me, how well this room looks! I can see you have spared no expense."

"I like to make myself comfortable, Mrs Bathurst. We only have one life."

"I wonder you care to spend it in such a dull place as Colester. If Mr Bathurst were rich I should make him take me to London."

"You would soon get tired of the roar of that city."

Here Peggy, who was fair and pretty and fond of gaiety, shook her blonde head vigorously. "I should never get tired of fun," she said. "I could go to a dance every night and still want more."

"Ah, Miss Peggy, you are young and active!"

"Well, dear Mr Pratt, you are not old," said Mrs Bathurst, flatteringly; "we must make you happy here. I am sure you are quite an acquisition. We must find you a wife."

"I shall apply to you when I want one," he said, with a laugh; "but I guess I'm not made to run in double harness."

"What odd expressions you use! I daresay that comes from your being an American. Never mind, you'll soon lose all Americanisms here. I look upon you as quite one of ourselves, dear Mr Pratt."

The fact is that Mrs Bathurst wished to bring about a marriage between her daughter Peggy and the newcomer. He had been introduced by Mrs Gabriel, so his social position was secure; and if one could judge from the magnificent furnishing of the house, he was a wealthy man. That Peggy herself should be consulted never entered her mother's head.

Pratt guessed what Mrs Bathurst was after, and chuckled. He had no intention of having the good lady for a mother-in-law. Moreover, he knew that Peggy was in love with Raston, the curate. Nevertheless, having a love of tormenting people, and wishing to punish Mrs Bathurst, he sighed, cast a languishing look at Peggy, and allowed the mother to think that he might be guided by her wish. Seeing this, the lady pushed her advantage vigorously, and was getting on very well by the time the other guests arrived. Then, after some desultory conversation, dealing with the weather and the crops, all went in to dinner.

The table was beautifully set out. The linen was snowy white, the silver and crystal of the best, and the flowers, which Pratt had personally arranged, were skilfully chosen and blended. The women present were rather annoyed that a man should be able to manage a house so well, for the dinner was one of the best that had ever been eaten in Colester, and the service was all that could be desired. What was the use, thought Mrs Bathurst, of suggesting a wife to a man who knew so well how to dispense with one? She could not have arranged things better herself, and it was vexing that a mere man should be able to beat a woman on her own ground.

"You have certainly made a very pretty place of it, Mr Pratt," said Mrs Gabriel, when they returned to the drawing-room. "I suppose you will live here for many a long day?"

"I hope to die here," he replied, smiling. "But one never knows. I may take a fancy to resume my travels."

"You are like Ulysses," put in the vicar, "you know men and cities."

"And, like Ulysses, I don't think much of either, Mr Tempest."

"Come now!" cried Leo, laughing. "I never heard that Ulysses was a cynic."

"He was not modern enough," said Sybil, who was looking particularly charming, much to the anger of Mrs Gabriel, who saw in her a man-trap for her adopted son.