A Country Wooing by Joan Smith

food,” Anne added.
    “Why, we can send down a batch of servants to lend you a hand,” Aunt Tannie offered. “The crew here seems to keep multiplying. As soon as a footman marries, he brings his wife to work, and the wife has a sister, and before you know it, we’ve got a whole new family underfoot.”
    “Why don’t you let some of them go?” Mrs. Wickfield asked.
    “Jobs are scarce,” Alex said vaguely.
    “So is money, and servants must be paid.”
    “They’re not paid much. I was embarrassed to hand them their wages. Of course, they get their room and board. Food at least is plentiful. How do you refuse a job to one of your own tenant farmers’ girls?”
    Aunt Tannie turned a knowing eye on him. “That means you’ve hired Mollie Prawne, I suppose?”
    Alex shrugged. “What could I do? Prawne has six children at home to feed. They look like skeletons. She’ll only be getting twenty pounds a year.’’
    “Why, we could afford her,” Mrs. Wickfield said. “Our Mary demanded thirty-five, which is why we had to let her go.”
    Alex looked a question at Anne. “Could you afford Mollie?”
    “Mama is in charge of the big finances. I only have to worry about my own two hundred and fifty a year. If she says she can afford her, goodness knows we could use her.”
    It was arranged on the spot between Alex and Mrs. Wickfield, and without a word to say about it, Mollie Prawne was exchanged.
    Penholme had indicated that eating with the children was an experience not to be repeated, but when high tea was served, the twins offered their arms to their sisters, and the whole family went to the dining room. The youngsters had received a stiff lecture that they were to be seen and not heard. They behaved well for ten minutes, but then their patience gave out and the remainder of the meal was as boisterous as before. There was no talk of the boys becoming soldiers, however. Bung had decided that he would be Prime Minister, while Willie spoke of riding the horses at Astley’s Circus.
    Aunt Tannie bemoaned the state of the blue suite, saying it was too bad they hadn’t time to get it fixed up before Rosalie’s arrival.
    “Rosalie is family,” Alex said. “We don’t have to put on airs for her. Exmore is a man of the world. It will not be news to him that our pockets are to let. I daresay it’s buzzed all over London by now. I must get up to London very soon and see just how I stand with creditors there.”
    “Get yourself some new jackets while you’re in town,” Aunt Tannie suggested.
    Alex said nothing, but he looked interested. It was only natural that a young bachelor would want a new set of clothing after three years in uniform, and Anne assumed that if the finances were in order, he would return as fine as Robin.
    Though it was only high tea that was served, it was served in the dining room, and the gentlemen remained behind for port. When they rejoined the ladies, Robin went to sit beside Anne. It was natural he should choose the younger lady, but on this occasion she rather wished he had not. Especially when Alex gave a dissatisfied look at them and went to join Aunt Tannie and her mother.
    Robin immediately began an amusing exposition on the selling of Charlie’s effects, and before long she was laughing to hear how Alex had scooped the whole lot back into the box when the man, mistaking them for a pair of flats, had offered a mere thousand pounds.
    “I believe he thought we’d pinched the stuff,” Robin rattled on. “You should have seen Alex get on his high ropes. Sounded for the world like Papa in a huff. ‘The Penholmes of Penholme Hall are not accustomed to haggling. We ought to have taken these few trifles to Sotheby’s,’ he said. That made the old fellow look sharp, I can tell you. He stuck his loupe in his eye, and it nearly fell out from shock when he ogled the emerald tie stud. Jove, I bet Alex wished he could have kept it.”
    “He was never one for dolling himself up in jewels and