He rubbed his hands and
drank two extra glasses of wine.
"We'll have the Brownes to dinner, as usual, next Thursday," said he, "I am
sure your mother would have been hurt if we had omitted it; it is now nine
years since they began to come, and they have never missed one Christmas
since. Do you see any objection, Frank?"
"None at all, sir," answered he. "I intend to go up to town soon after
Christmas, for a week or ten days, on my way to Cambridge. Can I do
anything for you?"
"Well, I don't know. I think I shall go up myself some day soon. I can't
understand all these lawyer's letters, about the purchase of the Newbridge
estate; and I fancy I could make more sense out of it all, if I saw Mr.
Hodgson."
"I wish you would adopt my plan, of having an agent, sir. Your affairs are
really so complicated now, that they would take up the time of an expert
man of business. I am sure all those tenants at Dumford ought to be seen
after."
"I do see after them. There's never a one that dares cheat me, or that
would cheat me if they could. Most of them have lived under the Buxtons for
generations. They know that if they dared to take advantage of me, I should
come down upon them pretty smartly."
"Do you rely upon their attachment to your family--or on their idea of your
severity?"
"On both. They stand me instead of much trouble in account-keeping, and
those eternal lawyers' letters some people are always dispatching to their
tenants.
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