CHAPTER 4Kate Carter’s fears were fully realized. At Northbridge, at Pomfret Madrigal, at High and Low Rising, at Worsted, Winter Overcotes and Skeynes, society was increasingly interested in Mrs. Arbuthnot and her sister-in-law who had taken the cottage at Southbridge. The Close was interested because the Deanery (taking as the Palace thought an unfair advantage) had had them to dinner and Mrs. Crawley had said she was going to call upon them as soon as they were settled. This was partly curiosity on Mrs. Crawley’s part because she had never seen the inside of Editha Cottage; partly her natural kindness to two newcomers whom she and her husband had liked; partly a quite groundless idea that Colonel Crofts might marry Miss Arbuthnot; and also a challenge to the Palace, whose unsocial habit
