‘And so her name shall remain. It would do more than displease Papa were you to continue with this matter. It can go no further. Alice is your wife, who has given you a beautiful son: you must turn towards her now.’

For a time no more was heard nor spoken about the matter. William’s immediate attention was taken up by the question of what to do concerning his late brother’s fiancée, Emily Norris. The girl’s father had lost his position at a firm in Cheltenham, it seemed as a result of his propensity for port and Madeira wine. The girl had written to William – no doubt her father had put her up to it – asking if there was a cottage on the estate to which the family might now repair, the lease on their town house being lost because her father was without funds to keep up the rent.

William’s mother and father had been against the engagement from the very first. Emily was certainly pretty, but it had been clear to them that the father was a sot and, if this were not disadvantage enough, he came from Trade. There were hundreds of other pretty girls, from good families. But Algernon had been young and tender-hearted and had not heeded them. Now they found themselves in the most unwelcome situation: they were without their darling boy, yet beholden still to the girl and her family.

The senior Mr Gale’s reluctant conclusion was that they must find somewhere to house the Norrises. There was an empty cottage to the far side of the home farm which would do. Perhaps it might be that the property was made available for a twelvemonth, while Mr Norris sought an alternative. There was a younger brother who was now of an age to begin to make a living; Emily herself might be asked to consider taking up employment as a governess. It did not do to languish. In any case, it was fervently to be hoped that the family would not expect to be sheltered in perpetuity. Certainly there could be no question of their offering employment to Mr Norris. William proposed another solution: that the man be given a sum equal to six months’ rent on his current abode, as well as funds to tide him over until employment was found. In this way the Gales need not enter into a long-standing obligation.

The matter was a delicate one. There was much to be said for William’s idea, were it not for the fact that the beloved memory of his brother must be considered. While paying off the Norris family was without doubt the more expedient solution, could it be said to be the noblest, the one that Algie himself would have wished? And if word of it reached the wider ears of the county, might it not be whispered abroad that the Gales had behaved sharply?