I could not have planned it better myself! I shall go down with you on Wednesday in time for the jollification on Thursday.I always enjoy that day; they are such nice, friendly people, those good Hollingford ladies.
Then I'll have a day with Sheepshanks, and perhaps I may ride over to Ashcombe and see Preston - Brown Jess can do it in a day, eighteen miles - to be sure! But there's back again to the Towers! how much is twice eighteen - thirty?' 'Thirty-six,' said Lady Cumnor, sharply.'So it is; you're always right, my dear.Preston's a clever, sharp fellow.' 'I don't like him,' said my lady.'He takes looking after; but he's a sharp fellow.He's such a good-looking man, too, I wonder you don't like him.' 'I never think whether a land-agent is handsome or not.They don't belong to the class of people whose appearance I notice.' 'To be sure not.But he is a handsome fellow; and what should make you like him is the interest he takes in Clare and her prospects.He is constantly suggesting something that can be done to her house, and I know he sends her fruit, and flowers, and game just as regularly as we should ourselves if we lived at Ashcombe.' 'How old is he?' said Lady Cumnor, with a faint suspicion of motives in her mind.'About twenty-seven, I think.Ah! I see what is in your ladyship's head.
No! no! he's too young for that.You must look out for some middle-aged man, if you want to get poor Clare married; Preston won't do.' 'I'm not a match-maker, as you might know.I never did it for my own daughters.
I'm not likely to do it for Clare,' said she, leaning back languidly.'Well! you might do a worse thing.I'm beginning to think she'll never get on as a schoolmistress, though why she should not, I'm sure I don't know; for she's an uncommonly pretty woman for her age, and her having lived in our family, and your having had her so often with you, ought to go a good way.I say, my lady, what do you think of Gibson? He would be just the right age - widower - lives near the Towers.' 'I told you just now I was no match-maker, my lord.I suppose we had better go by the old road - the people at those inns know us?' And so they passed on to speaking about other things than Mrs Kirkpatrick and her prospects, scholastic or matrimonial.