He realised that
his outlook upon the unusual situation was being illuminated by an
intelligence at once brilliant and fine, while it was also full of
nice shading. The situation, of course, WAS unusual. A beautiful young
sister-in-law appearing upon the dark horizon of a shamefully ill-used
estate, and restoring, with touches of a wand of gold, what a fellow
who was a blackguard should have set in order years ago. That Lady
Anstruthers' money should have rescued her boy's inheritance instead
of being spent upon lavish viciousness went without saying. What
Mount Dunstan was most struck by was the perfect clearness, and its
combination with a certain judicial good breeding, in Miss Vanderpoel's
view of the matter. She made no confidences, beautifully candid as her
manner was, but he saw that she clearly understood the thing she was
doing, and that if her sister had had no son she would not have
done this, but something totally different. He had an idea that Lady
Anstruthers would have been swiftly and lightly swept back to New York,
and Sir Nigel left to his own devices, in which case Stornham Court
and its village would gradually have crumbled to decay. It was for Sir
Ughtred Anstruthers the place was being restored.
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