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Rh sister-in-law might remain at home at Courcy Castle—or, at any rate, not come to Greshamsbury—if she could not do so without striving to rule him and every one else when she got there. This had of course been repeated to the countess, who had merely replied to it by a sisterly whisper, in which she sorrowfully intimated that some men were born brutes, and always would remain so.

'I think they all are,' the Lady Arabella had replied; wishing, perhaps, to remind her sister-in-law that the breed of brutes was as rampant in West Barsetshire as in the eastern division of the county.

The squire, however, had not fought on this occasion with all his vigour. There had, of course, been some passages between him and his son, and it had been agreed that Frank should go for a fortnight to Courcy Castle.

'We mustn't quarrel with them, you know, if we can help it,' said the father; 'and, therefore, you must go sooner or later.'

'Well, I suppose so; but you don't know how dull it is, governor.'

'Don't I?' said Mr. Gresham.

'There's a Miss Dunstable to be there; did you ever hear of her, sir?'

'No, never.'

'She's a girl whose father used to make ointment, or something of that sort.'

'Oh, yes, to be sure; the ointment of Lebanon. He used to cover all the walls in London. I haven't heard of him this year past.'

'No; that's because he's dead. Well, she carries on the ointment now, I believe; at any rate, she has got all the money. I wonder what she's like.'

'You'd better go and see,' said the father, who now began to have some inkling of an idea why the two ladies were so anxious to carry his son off to Courcy Castle at this exact time. And so Frank had packed up his best clothes, given a last fond look at the new black horse, repeated his last special injunctions to Peter, and had then made one of the stately cortège which proceeded through the county from Greshamsbury to Courcy Castle.

'I am very glad of that, very,' said the squire, when he heard that the money was to be forthcoming. 'I shall get it on easier terms from him than elsewhere; and it kills me to have continual bother about such things.' And Mr. Gresham, feeling that that difficulty was tided over for a time, and that the immediate pressure of little debts would be abated, stretched himself on his