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CHAPTER XII
On the Watch
It has left off raining down in Lincolnshire at last, and
Chesney Wold has taken heart. Mrs. Rouncewell is full of
hospitable cares, for Sir Leicester and my Lady are coming
home from Paris. The fashionable intelligence has found it
out and communicates the glad tidings to benighted Eng-
land. It has also found out that they will entertain a brilliant
and distinguished circle of the ELITE of the BEAU MONDE
(the fashionable intelligence is weak in English, but a giant
refreshed in French) at the ancient and hospitable family
seat in Lincolnshire.
For the greater honour of the brilliant and distinguished
circle, and of Chesney Wold into the bargain, the broken
arch of the bridge in the park is mended; and the water, now
retired within its proper limits and again spanned grace-
fully, makes a figure in the prospect from the house. The
clear, cold sunshine glances into the brittle woods and ap-
provingly beholds the sharp wind scattering the leaves and
drying the moss. It glides over the park after the moving
shadows of the clouds, and chases them, and never catches
them, all day. It looks in at the windows and touches the
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