He passed through the entrance lobby and into the hall. There like a reception committee stood the three harridans of the Pilaster family: Augusta, her sister-in-law Madeleine, and her daughter Clementine. Augusta at forty-seven was as striking-looking as ever: she still had a classic face with dark eyebrows and a proud look, and if she was a little heavier than six years ago she had the height to carry it. Clementine was a slimmer edition of the same book, but she did not have the indomitable air of her mother and she missed being beautiful. Aunt Madeleine was every inch a Pilaster, from the curved nose down the thin, angular figure to the expensive lace trim around the hem of her ice-blue dress.
Hugh gritted his teeth and kissed them all.
Augusta said: "Well, Hugh, I trust your foreign experiences have made you a wiser young man than you were?"
She was not going to let anyone forget that he had left under a cloud. Hugh replied: "I trust we all grow wiser as we age, dear Aunt," and he had the satisfaction of seeing her face darken with anger.
"Indeed!" she said frostily.
Clementine said: "Hugh, allow me to present my fiance, Sir Harry Tonks."
Hugh shook hands. Harry was too young to have a knighthood, so the "sir" must mean he was a baronet, a kind of second-class aristocrat. Hugh did not envy him marriage to Clementine. She was not as bad as her mother, but she had always had a mean streak.
Harry asked Hugh: "How was your crossing?"
"Very quick," said Hugh. "I came in one of the new screw steamers. It only took seven days."
"By Jove! Marvelous, marvelous."
"What part of England are you from, Sir Harry?" Hugh asked, probing into the man's background.
"I've a place in Dorsetshire. Most of my tenants grow hops."
Landed gentry, Hugh concluded; if he has any sense he will sell his farms and put the money into Pilasters Bank. In fact Harry did not seem very bright, but he might be biddable. The Pilaster women liked to marry men who would do as they were told, and Harry was a younger version of Madeleine's husband George. As they grew older they became grumpy and resentful but they rarely rebelled.
"Come into the drawing room," Augusta commanded. "Everyone's waiting to see you."
