eir meal and gone out; awaiting his father, who always took a walk with his managing-man before breakfast. Every one breakfasted at a differ

ire distinguishable from that of the ordinary farmers in the parish, who were perhaps every whit as refined as he, but, having slouched their way through life with a consciousness of being in the vicinity of their "betters", wanted that self-possession and authoritativeness of voice and carriage which belonged to a man who thought of superiors as remote exist

ast yet?" but there was no pleasant morning greeting between them; not because of any unfriendl

've had my breakfast, but I

veloe to be a sort of privilege of his rank, while he cut a piece of beef, and held it up before the deer-hound that had come in with him. "Ri

period of folly, and that their aged wisdom was constantly in a state of endurance mitigated by sarcasm. Godfrey waited, before he spoke again, until the a

l-luck with Wildfire," he began; "

must turn over a new leaf-they must. What with mortgages and arrears, I'm as short o' cash as a roadside pauper. And that fool Kimble says the newspaper's talking about peace. Why, the country wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Prices 'ud run down like a jack, and I should never get my arrears, not if

n. He felt that his father meant to ward off any request for money on the ground of the misfortune with Wildfire, and that the emphasis he had thus been led to lay o

rse; I was only thinking I'd lost the means of paying you with the price of Wildfire, as I'd meant to do. Dunsey took him to the hunt to sell him for me the other day, and after he'd made a bargain for a h

ficiently quick of brain to form a probable guess as to what could have caused so strange an invers

red pounds. He paid it to me, when I was over there one day last month. And Dunsey bothered me f

embezzle my money? Are you turning out a scamp? I tell you I won't have it. I'll turn the whole pack of you out of the house together, and marry again. I'd have you to remember, sir, my property's got no entai

I was a fool, and let him have it. But I meant to pay it, whether he did or not. That's the whole story. I

nd let him give account of what he wanted the money for, and what he's done with it. He shall rep

n't come b

the Squire, with some disgust at the idea that

dead, and Dunsey must have walked off. I daresay we sh

for? Answer me that," said the Squire, attacking

was not fond of lying, and, not being sufficiently aware that no sort of duplicity can long

the Squire, with a sudden acuteness which startled Godfrey, who felt his heart beat violently at the nearness of his fathe

no matter to anybody else. It's hardly worth while to pry into young men's fooleries: it wouldn't have made

ur goings-on are not what I shall find money for any longer. There's my grandfather had his stables full o' horses, and kept a good house, too, and in worse times, by what I can make

ad not been kindness, and had had a vague longing for some discipline that would have checked his own errant weakness and helped his better

u, you know-you'd need try and

f things, but you know you've taken it ill always, and

some fathers would. I'd as lieve you married Lammeter's daughter as anybody. I suppose, if I'd said you nay, you'd ha' kept on with it; but, for want o' contradiction, you've changed your mind. You're a shilly-shally fellow: you take after your poor mother. She neve

very hot and uncomfortable;

to ask her? Do you stick to it, yo

n I want to marry," sa

eter isn't likely to be loath for his daughter to marry into my family, I should think. And as for the p

rm. "I think she's a little offended with me just now, and I should

f you can't turn over a new leaf. That's wha

on one of the farms, I suppose, and I don't think she'd come to live in this hous

ell me. You ask her, that's all," said t

t, sir," said Godfrey. "I hope you won'

Cox's, but wait for me. And tell 'em to get my horse saddled. And stop: look out and get that hack o' Dunsey's sold, and hand me the money, will you? He'll keep no more hacks at my expense.

d, it isn't my place to tell him to keep aw

uing, but go and order my horse,"

ce. And in this point of trusting to some throw of fortune's dice, Godfrey can hardly be called specially old-fashioned. Favourable Chance, I fancy, is the god of all men who follow their own devices instead of obeying a law they believe in. Let even a polished man of these days get into a position he is ashamed to avow, and his mind will be bent on all the possible issues that may deliver him from the calculable results of that position. Let him live outside his income, or shirk the resolute honest work that brings wages, and he will presently find himself dreaming of a possible benefactor, a possible simpleton who may be cajoled into using his interest, a possible state of mind in some possible person not yet