Army Society: Life in a garrison town ... Second edition

Front matter

ARMY SOCIETY LIFE IN A GARRISON TOWN. Jl Hiscursiu* £torg. BY J, JOHN STRANGE WINTER, AUTHOR OF " CAVALRY LIFE," "BOOTLES' BABY," "HOUP-LA," "ON MARCH," "IN QUARTERS," "PLUCK ! " "REGIMENTAL LEGENDS," ETC. " What is life Father?" ''A battle, my child! Where the strongest lance may fail, And the wariest eyes may be beguiled, And the stoutest heart may quail ; Where the foes are gathered on ev'ry hand, And rest not day or night, And the feeble little ones must stand In the thickest of the fight." Heaven and Earth. Siszcowia (SE ii it ton. ■% LONDON : F. V. WHITE & CO., 31 SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1886. [All Rights reserved.} "SELECT" NOVELS. Crown Svo, cloth, 3s. (ad. each. AT ALL BOOKSELLERS AND BOOKSTALLS. By FLORENCE MARRYAT. HER WORLD AGAINST A LIE. PEERESS AND PLAYER. THE HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE.

THE HEART OF JANE WARNER. UNDER THE LILIES & ROSES. MY OWN CHILD. FACING THE FOOTLIGHTS. A BROKEN BLOSSOM. MY SISTER THE ACTRESS. By ANNIE THOMAS (Mrs Pender Cudlip). FRIENDS AND LOVERS. JENIFER. HER SUCCESS. ALLERTON TOWERS. KATE VALLIANT. By LADY CONSTANCE HOWARD. MATED WITH A CLOWN. I SWEETHEART AND WIFE. MOLLIE DARLING. I ONLY A VILLAGE MAIDEN. By MRS HOUSTOUN, Author of "Recommended to Mercy.'' BARBARA'S WARNING. | EVERY INCH A WOMAN. By MRS AiÆ_HH$gR FRASER. A PROFESSIONAL BEAU3^^«^(3^^ATCH 0F THE SEASON. By IZA DUF_TJ6jKAJ.DY. LOVE, HONOUR AND OBEV^^^^^^'eaSILY JEALOUS. ONLYATXCrtrESTO R Y. By JEAN MIDDLEMASS. POISONED ARROWS. By H. L0VETT-CAMER0N. A DEAD PAST. By LADY VIOLET GREVILLE. KEITH'S WIFE. A NORTH COUNTRY MAID. By DORA RUSSELL. OUT OF EDEN. By NELLIE FORTESCUE HARRISON, Author os "So Runs my Dream.

FOR ONE MAN'S PLEASURE. By EDMUND LEATHES. THE ACTOR'S WIFE. COLSTON AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. j^Eirtrafttttt. TO MY ONLY BROTHER, To whose sympathetic and ever-ready encourage ment during many years of literary effort, I owe more than I can ever estimate, I affectionately dedicate these pages. JOHN STRANGE WINTER. Putney, May 1886. CONTENTS. PAGE sidelight — In a Garrison Town, ..... 2

Chapter I. On

A FALSE SCENT. f^^T was well known to everybody in the irl||l good old city of Blankhampton that l__^__!SI Polly Antrobus might, if she had played her cards a shade better, have married the Honourable Eliot Cardella, a popular and exceedingly handsome cavalry officer, and the younger son of the rich and noble Earl of Mallinbro'. Not unreasonably, people thought and said it would have been a splendid match for the daughter of a country attorney, whose practice was not of the best as far as the social position of his clients went, and who was known to do a good deal in the money-lending line, and on the sixty per cent, principle. But alack, alas, for the tide which must be taken at the flood ! Polly, and moreover Polly's papa and mamma, wished for a higher, stronger,. fuller tide than served just then in the person of the Honourable Eliot Cardella— they wished for what was, in fact, quite a matrimonial spring tide ; and in waiting for it Polly missed both.

It was no new story — only a new reading of that old, old tale of the dog who dropped the substance for the shadow. For Polly and her people, who had at first found Eliot Cardella everything that was desirable, changed their opinion entirely when his only brother, Lord Cardella, appeared upon the scene and at once began to make the most outrageous love to his brother's fiancee: all Blankhampton knew that he had done it in order to gain his brother's freedom. Now Eliot, who had been very neatly trapped into the engagement, would have stuck to Polly through thick and thin, even if by doing so he would have ruined his wThole life, had Polly stuck to him. But Polly did not do so : on the contrary, dazzled by the glitter of a title which was not by courtesy, and pining for the coronet of a countess with which to bind her fair brows, and for the famous Mallinbro' diamonds to shine and twinkle about her white throat, Polly sent him about his business with promptitude and decision; whereupon Lord Car della took himself off about his business also, leaving the fair Polly to dree her weird over a card marked P.P.C., having also the pleasant consciousness that everybody in the town was laughing at her, and that most people were thoroughly enjoying her discomfiture.

Mrs Hugh Antrobus, her mother — "Mrs Hugh" everyone called her — was eloquent on the sub ject. " The fa-ct is," she said confidentially tt) Mr Antrobus and Polly, " the fa-ct is, we have made a great mistake in knowing the Cuirassiers on an im-proper footing." " I quite agree with you there, Mariana," said Hugh Antrobus decidedly. Now, as a matter of fact, they had never known the Cuirassiers (as a regiment) on any footing, except that Hugh Antrobus had called on the mess, receiving in return two cards left by two gentlemen who did not even ask whether he happened to be at home or not ; further, they had scraped acquaintance with the Paymaster, whose back windows overlooked the garden of the River House, and through him they con trived almost to hook the Honourable Eliot Cardella. " Now," Mrs Hugh went on, with a certain lingering over her words which was a char acteristic of hers ; " I have qui-te made up my mind about one thing, and that is, that with the new regiment we must take a different stand.

It ne-vah does to know those sort of people — it nev-ah pays, and between you and I" — she invariably used the nominative — " we must for the future take a to-tally different stand." " Oh ! no, no ; you're quite right, Mariana, it never pays," agreed her lord and master, with an uncomfortable remembrance of the cards left by the Cuirassiers, and a reminder to him self that they had not then known those kind of people. " Therefore I shall call upon the Colonel's wife im-mediately," his wife went on briskly. " It will be better in ev-ery respect ; it puts one on such a different footing with the reg-iment. And we must _?i-tertain them rfi-rectly. It is no use, Hugh, waiting to get to know people ; ive must take the initiative." So " ive " did take the initiative, and Mrs Hugh and Polly called on the Colonel's wife before that lady had been in Blankhampton a week ; and to Mrs Hugh's triumph and delight, Mrs Trelawney greeted them with effusion, welcomed them, so to speak, with open arms.

Mrs Hugh looked significantly at Polly as much as to say — " See what I have accom plished ! " while Polly looked pretty and said nothing. " Is Blankhampton a pleasant place ? " Mrs Trelawney asked. " Well, so-so," Mrs Hugh replied ; " ve-ry poor ; ve-ry proud ; ve-ry exclusive." One or two officers of the Yellow Horse had spoken of it to their chief's wife as a first rate hunting centre, and Mrs Trelawney men tioned it. " Yes, that is so," Mrs Hugh answered ; " and there are some good balls ; but, as a rule, it is ra-ther a dull place. Yes, there are good ball rooms, and good balls too. Two county-balls — the Hunt — the Off-icers'," with a little laugh, " and the Yeo-manry ; a very good ball that, but the invitations are dreadfully difficult to ob tain ; " and then she added carelessly, — " We have ours from the ABBOT -ABBOTS of ABBOTSWELL."

" Oh ! really ; good people the Abbots," observed Mrs Trelawney, greatly amused by her visitor's Roman capital, style of mentioning the family. " Oh ! ve-ry good family," Mrs Hugh replied. She quite, however, omitted to mention that Hugh Antrobus had once, some years back, hidden under his roof for a week or more a young scion of the house of Abbot, who was what is vulgarly called " wanted " by the police, contriving then to get him " shipped off" for eign " in the guise or disguise, which you will, of a countryman, for which good service the head of the house wrote the name of Antrobus upon his game-list, and promised moreover to do him any favour he might ask, never dream ing that the very first request would be for invitations to the Yeomanry ball, where the company of second-rate attorneys is not usually desired or to be found.

However, though Mrs Hugh had not forgotten the trifling circumstance, it is not always ex pedient to tell all one knows : for the matter of that, it was quite as well that Mrs Hugh was not in the habit of following that practice, for her disclosures would indeed have been startling. After some more conversation, during which Mrs Hugh learned that Mrs Trelawney's youngest child had been born in the Suez Canal on the way home from India, and named Julia Serapis in consequence, a little divertisse ment came in the shape of a tall dragoon wearingevening clothes and bearing a teao o _> tray. Yes, Mrs Hugh would take a cup, and over it she waxed more friendly and confidential than ever. " You have a good many off-icers in your regiment ? " she remarked, in a questioning tone. Mrs Trelawney stared in amazement at this.

" Yes, the usual strength," she answered. " Ah ! yes. And are there many married people ? " " Not many. No ! only ourselves and the senior captain, whose wife is not likely to be here at all this summer. She met with a serious accident last year at Simla ; her carriage was upset over a chud, and she was frightfully hurt. I fancy she will remain with her own people for the present. But the two doctors are married ; the assistant surgeon's wife is little more than a bride, and very rich : a charming girl too she is." " Really ! I intend calling upon her to-morrowT. They are staying just opposite to us ; " but in truth Mrs Hugh had intended doing no thing of the kind, having classed Mrs Marsden in her own mind as being amongst those sort of people. " And have you any tveal-thy men amongst the off-icers ?

" she asked carelessly. " Oh, ho ! " thought the Colonel's wife ; " wants a rich husband for the pretty daughter. What a joke ! " " Only two really eligible men," she made haste to reply, " both very young — mere boys." " Oh, indeed ! And their names ? " in a tone of supreme indifference, as if she was only pursuing the subject in order to make conversation. " One is called Devreux, the other Heywood — enormously rich both of them, and such pleasant boys," Mrs Trelawney answered. At this point another divertissement came in the shape of a visitor, a divertissement regarded by Mrs Hugh in the light of a tire some interruption, until she heard the name of the visitor announced by the big dragoon. " Lord Alfred Pierrepoint ! " Lord Alfred walked across the room and shook hands with the lady of the house, found himself a chair, and remarked that it was a fearfully cold day.

Mrs Trelawney asked if he would have a cup of tea. " Oh ! tha-anks," he answered, with a look at Mrs Hugh. Then he laid his hat, stick, and gloves on the little table at his elbow ; and, as he took the cup, said, " Tha-anks " again, with a look at Polly, which he did not repeat. Lord Alfred was clumsy and loutish-looking, yet Mrs Hugh expanded with pride till she very nearly overflowed her chair — for Lord Alfred Pierrepoint was, she very well knew, the son of a marquis, one of the noblest families in the three kingdoms. She rose presently to take leave, feeling positively dizzy with the magnitude of her success ; she beamed " with a smile that was childlike and bland " upon Lord Alfred when he stood up as she shook both Mrs Trelawney's hands, and went away, passing through the streets with quite an indulgent air to all she met — the indulgent air of a victor returning from the scene of her triumphs.

Indeed, all the little hanging jet ornaments upon her bonnet seemed to jingle and tinkle a triumphal march in miniature. And if only Polly could manage to secure Lord Alfred — what a triumph that would be. Mrs Hugh gave her head an extra wave at the mere possibility of such a thing, and set all the little ornaments tink ling again J in what was positively a millinery symphony. How it would let those unprincipled, odious, utterly detestable Cardellas see ! Hoiv it would pay off dozens of old scores among Blank hampton folk — hints, smiles, looks, and, worst of all, open condolences. Already in imagina tion Mrs Hugh regarded Polly as, "my daughter, Lady Alfred Pierrepoint." SIDELIGHT. MRS HUGH ANTROBUS. REALLY don't think that I care very much about Sundays," said Mrs Hugh Antrobus to her friend Mrs Dallas, as they walked home from church together one lovely summer morning : she had spent a very profitable hour and a half in church, — not in religious meditations, but deep in a calculation as to whether she could get the servants to do without meat for supper, and whether the two younger girls could make their frocks last a little longer.

" Sunday interferes so with all one's regular routine," she went on blandly : " and it's such a tiresome day — like a day wasted ! " " Oh ! dear, Mrs Hugh ! " cried Mrs Dallas, "you would not surely do away with the day of rest ? " SIDELIGHT. " The day of hindrance," cried Mrs Hugh, with her oiliest laugh, "hindrance to all my plans. Oh ! dear, yes, I could dispense with Sunday very well. Polly — did you put a shilling in the bag ? " " Yes, mamma," said Polly promptly. "That's right. Well, Mrs Dallas," to her friend ; " you'll come in after church this evening and have supper with us, won't you? Dear mamma is here — she came yesterday." "Oh! I don't know if Mr Dallas— " Oh ! yes, de-ah, do come. Hugh likes to sing a few hymns on Sunday evening, and the children enjoy it. You will come, won't you, de-ah ? " " I'll see what Mr Dallas says ? " Very well ; but remember I shall count upon you," was Mrs Hugh's airy rejoinder. -^^^

Chapter II

"THESE ARMY PEOPLE." RFjgiVjI'UT that very fertile imagination of \W fUl Hugh's had led her altogether &^sÆ\ to reckon without her host. So far as Polly was concerned, Lord Alfred was im practible, as she would have realised instantly could she have stayed unseen in Mrs Trelaw ney's drawing-room, after the door had closed behind herself and Polly. She would have seen Lord Alfred standing on the hearth, his society manner and his " tha-anks " quite gone, and in their stead an air of being very much at home indeed ; in fact, he took hold of Mrs Trelawney 's arm and drew her very near to him. " How's your cold to-day, Rosey ? " he asked tenderly : Mrs Hugh would have realised in stantly, had she heard it, that all the love this noble lord had to give (at present) was given " THESE ARMY PEOPLE." 15 to the not very handsome, and no longer very young, wife of his commanding officer.

" Very bad, Taff, very bad ; I feel as stupid as an owl," she answered: "I don't at all wonder. Who was that old frump ? " " A Mrs Antrobus. I don't know anything more about her." " H — m ! Prodigious old party." " Yes — perhaps. But the girl is lovely," in a tone she tried hard to make hearty. " Lovely ? Didn't see it myself — all red and white like a dairy-maid, with a slobbery mouth. Not my style at all," said Lord Alfred, with uncompromising plainness. " Didn't strike me as very good form either. What are they ? Who's the father when he's at home ? " " I haven't a notion. Mrs Antrobus was just beginning to pump me as to the eligible men in the regiment, when you came in and put a stop to it. I — it was too bad of me — " with a laugh full of mischief — " but I told her there were only two really rich ones."

" Yes ? " questioningly. " Which two ? " " Devreux and Heywood." Lord Alfred postively roared. " Upon my soul, Rosey, you are the very cleverest woman I ever had the good fortune to come across, — just my usual ill-luck that the Colonel met you before I did. I wonder what those fellows will say ? " " You'll tell them ? " " I should think so. They'll be asked to dinner forthwith without doubt." " You too," with the least little ring of jealousy in her voice. " Oh ! I daresay. I shan't go though ; I should never be rid of them again. That's the worst of having a handle to one's name. There is no chance of being overlooked, or mistaken for anybody else. It's a great nuisance, and really I don't know that it has any advantages on the other hand." Alas for Mrs Hugh's visions — fairy visions of '' my daughter, Lady Alfred Pierrepoint ' " Yet, after all, Lord Alfred did once dine at the River House, because the Trelawneys were asked, and he usually went wherever Mrs Trelawney did.

It must be confessed that, on the whole, that party was a dismal failure. Lord Alfred, finding himself separated from Mrs Trelawney by the whole length of the dinner-table, turned sulky, and paid attention to nothing but the wine, which he afterwards pronounced execrable. Then, as soon as he entered the drawing-room, he made for a vacant place at Mrs Trelawney 's side, and there he remained a fixture, declining on any pretext whatever to be dislodged until the party broke up. It is true they asked him again, more than once, but as he could sit on the same sofa with " THESE ARMY PEOPLE." 17 Mrs Trelawney every day of his life, he did not see enduring two hours of misery that he might do so in the River House drawing-room. However, the intimacy between the Colonel's wife and the family at the River House pro gressed amazingly ; and the delight of it never seemed to pall upon Mrs Hugh's soul.

In fact, the whole family of the Antrobuses paraded their friendship in high quarters in every man ner imaginable. Thus at the Winter Garden, when the band of the Yellow Horse was play ing, might be heard, — " To-to ! To-to ! where's pap-ah ? " " Oh ! pap-ah's with the ' Colonel •' Or in this fashion, — " Baby ' baby ! where's your mother ? " I don't know, papa. She's somewhere with Mrs Trelaw-ney ! " Or after this manner, — " Baby ! baby ! where is To-to ? " " Oh ! To-to and Polly have gone to see the fairy fountain with the Colonel." And so on. Indeed, it became a matter of considerable amusement to some people, more accustomed to that class of society than the Antrobuses, to see how often the Colonel and Mrs Trelaw-ney could be brought into their conversations. " Such a joke the other day," said sharp Miss To-to.

" The Colonel and Mrs Trelaw-ney were dining with us, and the Colonel said, — B ' Oh ! by the way, Rosey wants to have a stall at the Parish ' (they always call Blankhampton Cathedral " the Parish "), ' how am I to get one for her ? ' ' Why don't you call on the Dean ? ' said I. ' Call on the Dean,' he repeated — and he said it in such a doubtful kind of way — ' Oh ! but there are a lot of Miss Deans, aren't there ? ' ' Only three,' I told him. ' Oh ! ' said the Colonel, in such a comical tone, ' but it's a formidable matter facing three Miss Deans.' " Now some few of the many people who heard this story, who were able to read between the lines, thought it a trifle odd that a married Colonel, of good family should be afraid of the Dean's daughters ; but they naturally kept their thoughts to themselves, at least as far as the Antrobuses were concerned, so the farce was played on and progressed.

" Strictly between you and I," said Mrs Hugh one day to a friend, " Polly has a cold manner. I believe Mr Devreux admired her im-mensely — indeed, how could he help it ? But Polly has not encouraged him. Not that it matters, how ever, for he has already had some conversation with Hugh, and though we don't speak of it to every one, there is no harm in my telling you that he has w_-terior views respecting To-to." " How old is To-to ? " the lady asked, thinking of that young lady's skinny shanks and unformed childish person. THESE ARMY PEOPLE." 19 " Not yet sixteen — much too young to dre-am of anything of that kind at present. Oh ! they are quite i..-terior views — quite in the future." Well, to the intense delight of such of the good people of Blankhampton as happened to be in the secret, this pretty play was played on all through the early half of the winter, that is, until the season of Christmas was over, and the New Year's gaieties came on, and the invitations for the far-famed Yeomanry ball were sent out.

During all that time the Antrobus' old friends found them almost unapproachable, on account of the all-engrossing intimacy with the Colonel of the Yellow Horse and Mrs Tre law-ney, while on the few occasions when they condescended to remember older but less dis tinguished friends, they literally flaunted the new ones in their faces. " Mr Antrobus was dining with the COLONEL," Mrs Hugh might be heard to say at such times, in her most oily tones, and with a superior smile upon her fat face. " At mess, you know, and he heard so-and-so — " Or, " Mrs Trelaw-ney was asking me the other day if I could recommend a really good HEAD-nurse for her baby." And at all times she was ready and willing to descant on the beauties and excellencies of Lord Alfred Pierrepoint's character and manner, — "A thorough aristocrat — of COURSE," she would say in her own peculiar italicised style.

" Ve-ry unapproachable — won't take the trouble,. in fa-ct, to lay himself out to please ev-ery body " — as if Lord Alfred had not only offered to lay down himself but his very life for her and hers — " yet a very charming man when you come to know him in-timately." Well, in due course the invitations for the Yeomanry ball were sent out, and by dint of the usual application to the Abbot-Abbots, the Antrobuses obtained theirs. And then, in the very midst of their anxious efforts that Polly should hit upon something in dress very strik ing and very becoming, a piece of information crept out in Blankhampton society, and spread over the old city, flying very quickly towards the River House, where it burst upon the An trobuses as with the shock of a bomb-shell. Mrs Trelawney had not been invited !

It was inexplicable ! It was absurd ! It was monstrous ! So Mrs Hugh declared — and forth with a story was got up and freely circulated to the effect that Lord Blankhampton, the senior captain of the Blankhampton Yeomanry, had called personally upon the Colonel's wife, carrying with him a card of invitation, with a thousand apologies for the oversight which had prevented a longer invitation. But, for all that, no card of invitation was ever received by the Colonel's wife, for the very good and sufficient reason that one was never "THESE ARMY PEOPLE." 21 sent to her by Lord Blankhampton or anyone else ; and the real facts of the case were these. It happened that the Earl of Mallinbro', the colonel of the Blankhampton Yeomanry, had a niece married to the Honourable Algernon Dacre, then commanding the 110th Hussars, and just at the time that the Yeomanry were beginning to think about their ball, the Dacres came home from India on a year's leave of absence, and arrived at the Castle on a visit.

The very first evening, it happened that the lists for the ball were being looked over, and ■Colonel Dacre glanced down them. " ' Trelawney,' " said he sharply, " ' and Mrs Trelawney ' ; have you the Yellow Horse here ? " "Yes," replied Lord Mallinbro'; "they've been here some time, but we have seen no thing of them. My lady has never called : we've been away so long. I believe she in tends to call on everyone this week." "My dear lord!" Colonel Dacre exclaimed, " Lady Mallinbro' cannot call on Mrs Trelawney. I wonder you have never heard — " " We have heard nothing," Lord Mallinbro' in terrupted. " We haven't seen a soul : we only got here yesterday." " Then, if you make inquiries, I think you will find that Mrs Trelawney, though she has been here some time, has not seen a soul either." " Oh-h ! and do you know anything of her ?

" " Rather ! I know that her life, both before and after her marriage, prevented her from being received even in Anglo-Indian society, which as you know is lenient, because black sheep and white are compelled to mingle in friendliness in the land which we hold by the sword, and so are drawn together despite many a fault and failing which would not be over looked at home. Of course a general haziness as to the date of a marriage ceremony can be overlooked, but when the same haziness seems to extend over the question, ' Which is the husband ? ' why — " " Oh ! really ; you don't say so. Who is the other man ? " Taff Pierrepoint.' You don't mean it ! " cried Lord Mallinbro' " Oh ! yes, I do. Mrs Trelawney's preference for Tafl's society is well known all over the Punjaub." And there the matter ended : Anglo-Indian society had declined to receive Mrs Trelawney, and " the swim " in Blankhampton and its neighbourhood had followed suit.

It w-as no use arguing about it or gainsaying it ; it was of less use to spread contradictory reports, for nobody believed them, and Mrs Hugh was only laughed at for clinging so desperately to her distinguished friends, and making a parade of what was indeed a new trait in her character, a profession of charity and a desire always to be lieve the best until the worst is forced upon you. THESE ARMY PEOPLE. 23 But the woman was indomitable ! When she found that the new charity idea was no good, she pulled herself together, so to speak, and enlarged in a severe manner upon " these Army people who come and go — here to-day and gone to-morrow, nobody knowing who or ivhat they are ; " forgetting altogether what her hearers remembered only too well, the fact that had she been even but on the outer edge of " the swim," she would have known within a week exactly who and what these particular army people happened to be.

And that was the end of Mrs Hugh's first plunge into army society. However, Mrs Hugh, in her own mind at all events, lived the mistake down, and vowed to eschew officers' wives entirely for the future, at least until she might be absolutely assured of their respectability. Therefore, in accordance with that laudable resolution, she laid her plans for attacking the regiment which in time re lieved the Yellow Horse, and took up its quarters in Blankhampton Barracks. SIDELIGHT. POLLY ANTROBUS. |HE was a good girl, but very foolish. j Her favourite attitude was one of U pretty dutifulness, and her powers of conversation were very limited. There is, however, one very brilliant utterance of hers on record, which was given to the world on an occasion when she was constrained to make conversation with a gentleman afflicted by ter rible shyness.

N.B. — The gentleman was what is called in slang phraseology " a catch." " Do you like afternoon dances ? " asked Polly. " Oh — er — awfully," said he. " Some people don't care about them." " N — no — I — I believe not," in an agony of shyness. " And what is your favourite pursuit ? " She was very sorry for him, and his shyness made her feel shy too. SIDELIGHT. " Oh — er — er — model-farming, I think.' Now Polly knew nothing about farming, model or otherwise, so the two came to a dead block, and stood, he looking admiringly at her, she gazing away over the glowing corn-fields to the blue hills half-a-dozen miles away, for the dance was not in Blankhampton but at a pleasant manor house some miles from that town. " The country is looking very well," said the " catch," in a burst'of confidence. " Yes," answered Polly, looking all round the landscape. " And there's a good deal of land about here, isn't there ? "