



Produced by Al Haines





BELLES AND RINGERS


BY

HAWLEY SMART,


AUTHOR OF

"BOUND TO WIN;" "FALSE CARDS;" "TWO KISSES;" "COURTSHIP," ETC.




NEW EDITION.




LEVER BROTHERS, LTD.,

PORT SUNLIGHT, NEAR BIRKENHEAD.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

TODBOROUGH GRANGE


CHAPTER II.

THE CONSPIRATORS TRIUMPH


CHAPTER III.

THE COMMONSTONE BALL


CHAPTER IV.

THE ROCKCLIFFE GAMES


CHAPTER V.

AN EXCURSION TO TROTBURY


CHAPTER VI.

A SHORT CUT HOME


CHAPTER VII.

"THE PLAY'S THE THING!"


CHAPTER VIII.

MRS. WRIOTHESLEY


CHAPTER IX.

SATURDAY AT HURLINGHAM


CHAPTER X.

MRS. WRIOTHESLEY'S LITTLE DINNER


CHAPTER XI.

THE RINGING OF THE BELLES




BELLES AND RINGERS.


CHAPTER I.

TODBOROUGH GRANGE.

Todborough Grange, the seat of Cedric Bloxam, Justice of the Peace, and
whilom High Sheriff for East Fernshire, lies low.  The original Bloxam,
like the majority of our ancestors, had apparently a great dislike to
an exposed situation; and either a supreme contempt for the science of
sanitation, or a confused idea that water could be induced to run
uphill, and so, not bothering his head on the subject of drainage, as
indeed no one did in those days, he built his house in a hole, holding,
I presume, that the hills were as good to look up at as the valleys to
look down upon.  It was an irregular pile of gabled red brick, of what
could be only described as the composite order, having been added to by
successive Bloxams at their own convenience, and without any regard to
architectural design.  It was surrounded by thick shrubberies, in which
the laurels were broken by dense masses of rhododendrons.  Beyond these
again were several plantations, and up the hill on the east side of the
house stretched a wood of some eighty acres or so in extent.

As a race, the Bloxams possessed some of the leading Anglo-Saxon
characteristics; to wit, courage, obstinacy, and density--or perhaps I
should rather say slowness--of understanding.  The present proprietor
had been married--I use the term advisedly--to Lady Mary Ditchin, a
daughter of the Earl of Turfington, a family whose hereditary devotion
to sport in all its branches had somewhat impoverished their estates.
The ladies could all ride; and some twenty odd years ago, when Cedric
Bloxam was hunting in the Vale of White Horse country, Lord Turfington
and his family chanced to be doing the same.  Lady Mary rode; Cedric
Bloxam saw; and Lady Mary conquered.  She had made him a very good
wife, although as she grew older she unfortunately, as some of us do,
grew considerably heavier; and when no longer able to expend her
superfluous energies in the hunting-field, she developed into a
somewhat ambitious and pushing woman.  In this latter _role_ I do not
think she pleased Cedric Bloxam quite so well.  She insisted upon his
standing for the county.  Bloxam demurred at first, and, as usual, in
the end Lady Mary had her own way.  He threw himself into the fight
with all the pugnacity of his disposition, and, while his blood was up,
revelled in the fray.  He could speak to the farmers in a blunt homely
way, which suited them; and they brought him in as one of the
Conservative Members for East Fernshire.  But on penetrating the
perfidy of the wife of his bosom, Cedric Bloxam mused sadly over the
honours that he had won.  When Lady Mary had alternately coaxed and
goaded him into contesting the eastern division of his county, she was
seeking only the means to an end.  They had previously contented
themselves with about six weeks of London in May and June; but his wife
now pointed out to him that, as a Member of Parliament, it was
essential that he should have a house for the season.  It was the thin
end of the wedge, and though Cedric Bloxam lost his seat at the next
general election, that "house for the season" remained as a memento of
his entrance into public life.

"You see," said Lady Mary to her intimates, while talking the thing
over, "it was absolutely necessary that something should be done.
After he has done the Derby, Ascot, and the University Match, Cedric is
always bored with London.  The girls are growing up, and how are they
ever to get properly married if they don't get their season in town,
poor things!  I began by suggesting masters; but that had no effect on
Ced