She was little and slight of her age,and her father never seemed to understand how she was passing out of childhood.Yet while in stature she was like a child;in intellect,in force of character,in strength of clinging affection,she was a woman.There might be much of the simplicity of a child about her,there was little of the undeveloped girl,varying from day to day like an April sky,careless as to which way her own character is tending.So the two young people sat with their elders,and both relished the company they were thus prematurely thrown into.Mr.Corbet talked as much as either of the other two gentlemen;opposing and disputing on any side,as if to find out how much he could urge against received opinions.Ellinor sat silent;her dark eyes flashing from time to time in vehement interest--sometimes in vehement indignation if Mr.Corbet,riding a-tilt at everyone,ventured to attack her father.He saw how this course excited her,and rather liked pursuing it in consequence;he thought it only amused him.
Another way in which Ellinor and Mr.Corbet were thrown together occasionally was this:Mr.Ness and Mr.Wilkins shared the same Times between them;and it was Ellinor's duty to see that the paper was regularly taken from her father's house to the parsonage.Her father liked to dawdle over it.Until Mr.Corbet had come to live with him,Mr.Ness had not much cared at what time it was passed on to him;but the young man took a strong interest in all public events,and especially in all that was said about them.He grew impatient if the paper was not forthcoming,and would set off himself to go for it,sometimes meeting the penitent breathless Ellinor in the long lane which led from Hamley to Mr.Wilkins's house.At first he used to receive her eager "Oh!I am so sorry,Mr.Corbet,but papa has only just done with it,"rather gruffly.After a time he had the grace to tell her it did not signify;and by-and-by he would turn back with her to give her some advice about her garden,or her plants--for his mother and sisters were first-rate practical gardeners,and he himself was,as he expressed it,"a capital consulting physician for a sickly plant."All this time his voice,his step,never raised the child's colour one shade the higher,never made her heart beat the least quicker,as the slightest sign of her father's approach was wont to do.She learnt to rely on Mr.Corbet for advice,for a little occasional sympathy,and for much condescending attention.He also gave her more fault-finding than all the rest of the world put together;and,curiously enough,she was grateful to him for it,for she really was humble and wished to improve.He liked the attitude of superiority which this implied and exercised right gave him.They were very good friends at present.Nothing more.
All this time I have spoken only of Mr.Wilkins's life as he stood in relation to his daughter.But there is far more to be said about it.
After his wife's death,he withdrew himself from society for a year or two in a more positive and decided manner than is common with widowers.It was during this retirement of his that he riveted his little daughter's heart in such a way as to influence all her future life.
When he began to go out again,it might have been perceived--had any one cared to notice--how much the different characters of his father and wife had influenced him and kept him steady.Not that he broke out into any immoral conduct,but he gave up time to pleasure,which both old Mr.Wilkins and Lettice would have quietly induced him to spend in the office,superintending his business.His indulgence in hunting,and all field sports,had hitherto been only occasional;they now became habitual,as far as the seasons permitted.He shared a moor in Scotland with one of the Holsters one year,persuading himself that the bracing air was good for Ellinor's health.But the year afterwards he took another,this time joining with a comparative stranger;and on this moor there was no house to which it was fit to bring a child and her attendants.He persuaded himself that by frequent journeys he could make up for his absences from Hamley.But journeys cost money;and he was often away from his office when important business required attending to.There was some talk of a new attorney setting up in Hamley,to be supported by one or two of the more influential county families,who had found Wilkins not so attentive as his father.Sir Frank Holster sent for his relation,and told him of this project,speaking to him,at the same time,in pretty round terms on the folly of the life he was leading.Foolish it certainly was,and as such Mr.Wilkins was secretly acknowledging it;but when Sir Frank,lashing himself,began to talk of his hearer's presumption in joining the hunt,in aping the mode of life and amusements of the landed gentry,Edward fired up.He knew how much Sir Frank was dipped,and comparing it with the round sum his own father had left him,he said some plain truths to Sir Frank which the latter never forgave,and henceforth there was no intercourse between Holster Court and Ford Bank,as Mr.Edward Wilkins had christened his father's house on his first return from the Continent.
The conversation had two consequences besides the immediate one of the quarrel.Mr.Wilkins advertised for a responsible and confidential clerk to conduct the business under his own superintendence;and he also wrote to the Heralds'College to ask if he did not belong to the family bearing the same name in South Wales--those who have since reassumed their ancient name of De Winton.