ABSTRACT
There was great excitement in the village of Much cum Milton – a little place about thirty miles from Chester Towers – because Lady Dunquerque’s only son, Algernon, was to be married that day to the great lawyer, Frederica Roe. Apart from the natural joy with which such an event is welcomed in a monotonous country village, Algernon was deservedly popular. No better rider, no better shot, no stouter, handsomer lad was to be found in the country-side; nor was it to his discredit that he was the personal friend of young Lord Chester, whose Case was on everybody’s lips; nor, among young people, was it to his discredit that he was suspected of being on Lady Carlyon’s side. The village girls smiled and looked meaningly at each other when he passed: there were reports that the young man had more than once shown a certain disposition to freedoms; but these, for the sake of his father’s feelings, were not spread abroad; and indeed, in country districts, things which would have ruined a young man’s reputation in town – such as kissing a dairymaid or a dressmaker – were rather regarded with favour by the girls thus outraged.
