“Who asks thee to waste thy life? Hev I iver grudged thee any thing to make it happy? Thou hes hed t’ best o’ educations. If ta wants to travel, there’s letters o’ credit waiting for thee. If ta wants work, I’ve told thee there’s acres and acres o’ wheat on the Hallam marshes, if they were only drained. I’ll find ta money, if ta wants work.”
“Father, I could not put gold in a marsh, and then sit down and wait for the wheat to grow; and all the wheat on Hallam, unless it bore golden ears, would not satisfy me. George and I are going into Sir Thomas Harrington’s for a few months. Lord Eltham has spoken to him. Then George is to marry Selina Digby. She has fifty thousand pounds; and we are going to begin business.”
“Wi’ fifty thousand pounds o’ Miss Digby’s money! It’s t’ meanest scheme I iver heard tell on! I’m fair shamed o’ thee!”
“I must put into the firm fifty thousand pounds also; and I want to speak to you about it.”
“For sure! How does ta think to get it out o’ me now?”
“I could get Jews to advance it on my inheritance, but I would do nothing so mean and foolish as that. I thought it would be better to break the entail. You give me fifty thousand pounds as my share of Hallam, and you can have the reversion and leave the estate to whom you wish.”
The squire fairly staggered. Break the entail! Sell Hallam! The young man was either mad, or he was the most wicked of sons.
“Does ta know what thou is talking about! Hallam has been ours for a thousand years. O Antony! Antony!”
“We have had it so long, father, that we have grown to it like vegetables.”
“Has ta no love for t’ old place? Look at it. Is there a bonnier spot in t’ wide world? Why-a! There’s an old saying,