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Though a reading man, he did not devote himself to study.
Though a horseman, he was not often to be found in the stables. He
could supply conversation when it was wanted, and could take himself
out of the way when his presence among the women was not needed.
Between breakfast and lunch on the day following his arrival he
talked a good deal to the countess, and made himself very agreeable.
She continued to ridicule him gently for his prolonged stay among so
primitive and rural a tribe of people as the Dales, and he bore her
little sarcasm with the utmost good-humour.
"Six weeks at Allington without a move! Why, Mr Crosbie, you must
have felt yourself to be growing there."
"So I did--like an ancient tree. Indeed, I was so rooted that I could
hardly get away."
"Was the house full of people all the time?"
"There was nobody there but Bernard Dale, Lady Julia's nephew."
"Quite a case of Damon and Pythias. Fancy your going down to
the shades of Allington to enjoy the uninterrupted pleasures of
friendship for six weeks."
"Friendship and the partridges.


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