Now, of course, the greater part of all this gratulation was merely
amusing, and did no harm except stirring up the bile of a few old
bachelors, and imbittering them worse than ever against clucking cocks,
crowing hens, inflated parents, and matrimony in general.
But the overflow of it reached Huntercombe Hall, and gave cruel pain to
the childless ones, over whom this inflated father was, in fact,
exulting.
As for the christening, and the bells that pealed for it, and the
subsequent churching, they bore these things with sore hearts, and
bravely, being things of course. But when it came to their ears that
Bassett and his family called his new gravel-walk "The Heir's Walk,"
and his ridiculous nursery "The Heir's Tower," this roused a bitter
animosity, and, indeed, led to reprisals. Sir Charles built a long wall
at the edge of his garden, shutting out "The Heir's Walk" and
intercepting the view of his own premises from that walk.
Then Mr. Bassett made a little hill at the end of his walk, so that the
heir might get one peep over the wall at his rich inheritance.
Then Sir Charles began to fell timber on a gigantic scale. He went to
work with several gangs of woodmen, and all his woods, which were very
extensive, rang with the ax, and the trees fell like corn.
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