'
He fell into thought, and neither Sir Ashley nor Lady Mottisfont
took the trouble to answer the lawyer's letter; and so the matter
ended for the time.
One day at dinner, on their return from a short absence in town,
whither they had gone to see what the world was doing, hear what it
was saying, and to make themselves generally fashionable after
rusticating for so long--on this occasion, I say, they learnt from
some friend who had joined them at dinner that Fernell Hall--the
manorial house of the estate next their own, which had been offered
on lease by reason of the impecuniosity of its owner--had been taken
for a term by a widow lady, an Italian Contessa, whose name I will
not mention for certain reasons which may by and by appear. Lady
Mottisfont expressed her surprise and interest at the probability of
having such a neighbour. 'Though, if I had been born in Italy, I
think I should have liked to remain there,' she said.
'She is not Italian, though her husband was,' said Sir Ashley.
'Oh, you have heard about her before now?'
'Yes; they were talking of her at Grey's the other evening. She is
English.' And then, as her husband said no more about the lady, the
friend who was dining with them told Lady Mottisfont that the
Countess's father had speculated largely in East-India Stock, in
which immense fortunes were being made at that time; through this
his daughter had found herself enormously wealthy at his death,
which had occurred only a few weeks after the death of her husband.
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