Noel's window. Sanguine, accustomed to queer environments, and always
catching at the moment as it flew, he had not to fight with the
timidities and irritations of a nervous temperament. His cheery courtesy
was only disturbed when he became conscious of some sentiment which
appeared to him mean or cowardly. On such occasions, not perhaps
infrequent, his face looked as if his heart were physically fuming, and
since his shell of stoicism was never quite melted by this heat, a very
peculiar expression was the result, a sort of calm, sardonic, desperate,
jolly look.
His chief feeling, then, at the outrage which had laid him captive in
the enemy's camp, was one of vague amusement, and curiosity. People
round about spoke fairly well of this Caradoc family. There did not seem
to be any lack of kindly feeling between them and their tenants; there
was said to be no griping destitution, nor any particular ill-housing
on their estate. And if the inhabitants were not encouraged to improve
themselves, they were at all events maintained at a certain level, by
steady and not ungenerous supervision. When a roof required thatching it
was thatched; when a man became too old to work, he was not suffered to
lapse into the Workhouse. In bad years for wool, or beasts, or crops,
the farmers received a graduated remission of rent.
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