, and so was his
young widow. Her progress in the family began in the time of the last Sir
Leicester, and originated in the still-room.
    The present representative of the Dedlocks is an excellent master. He
supposes all his dependants to be utterly bereft of individual characters,
intentions, or opinions, and is persuaded that he was born to supersede the
necessity of their having any. If he were to make a discovery to the contrary,
he would be simply stunned - would never recover himself, most likely, except to
gasp and die. But he is an excellent master still, holding it a part of his
state to be so. He has a great liking for Mrs. Rouncewell; he says she is a most
respectable, creditable woman. He always shakes hands with her, when he comes
down to Chesney Wold, and when he goes away; and if he were very ill, or if he
were knocked down by accident, or run over, or placed in any situation
expressive of a Dedlock at a disadvantage, he would say if he could speak,
»Leave me, and send Mrs. Rouncewell here!« feeling his dignity, at such a pass,
safer with her than with anybody else.
    Mrs. Rouncewell has known trouble. She has had two sons, of whom the younger
ran wild, and went for a soldier, and never came back. Even to this hour, Mrs.
Rouncewell's calm hands lose their composure when she speaks of him, and
unfolding themselves from her stomacher, hover about her in an agitated manner,
as she says, what a likely lad, what a fine lad, what a gay, good-humoured,
clever lad he was! Her second son would have been provided for at Chesney Wold,
and would have been made steward in due season; but he took, when he was a
schoolboy, to constructing steam-engines out of saucepans, and setting birds to
draw their own water, with the least possible amount of labour; so assisting
them with artful contrivance of hydraulic pressure, that a thirsty canary had
only, in a literal sense, to put his shoulder to the wheel, and the job was
done. This propensity gave Mrs. Rouncewell great uneasiness. She felt it with a
mother's anguish, to be a move in the Wat Tyler direction: well knowing that Sir
Leicester had that general impression of an aptitude for any art to which smoke
and a tall chimney might be considered essential. But the doomed young rebel
(otherwise a mild youth, and very persevering), showing no
