These
are insignificant affairs, that he would not think it worth while to
allude to, even if you knew him for twenty years."
"You do not know Lord Oliphant, Mr. Popham," Cyril laughed, "or you
would be aware that his custom is to make mountains out of molehills.
But let us sit down to dinner. I suppose it is your forethought, Mr.
Popham, that I have to thank for having warned them to make this
provision? I had thought that we should be lucky if the resources of
the establishment sufficed to furnish us with a meal of bread and
cheese."
"I sent on a few things with my messenger yesterday evening, Sir
Cyril, but for the hare and those wild ducks methinks you have to
thank your tenants, who doubtless guessed that an addition to the
larder would be welcome. I have no doubt that, good landlord as Mr.
Harvey was, they are really delighted to have you among them again.
As you know, these eastern counties were the stronghold of
Puritanism, and that feeling is still held by the majority. It is
only among the tenants of many gentlemen who, like your father, were
devoted Royalists, that there is any very strong feeling the other
way. As you heard from their lips, most of your older tenants fought
under Sir Aubrey, while the fathers of the younger ones fell under
his banner. Consequently, it was galling to them that one of
altogether opposite politics should be their landlord, and although
in every other respect they had reason to like him, he was, as it
were, a symbol of their defeat, and I suppose they viewed him a good
deal as the Saxons of old times regarded their Norman lords.
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