"Conspiracy! Eh? Ugly word, Mr. Sandal. An actionable word, I may say."
"It is a conspiracy. You shall hear from me through some respectable lawyer."
"In the mean time, Mr. Sandal, I have taken, as you will see, the proper legal steps to prevent you wasting any more of the Sandal revenues. Every shilling you touch now, you will be held responsible for. Also," and he laid another paper down, "you are hereby restrained from removing, injuring, or in any way changing, or disposing of, the present furniture of the Seat. The squire insists specially on this direction, and he kindly allows you seven days to remove your private effects. A very reasonable gentleman is Squire Sandal."
Without further courtesies they parted; and the deposed squire locked the room-door, lifted the various documents, and read them with every sense he had. Then he went to Sophia; and at that hour he was almost angry with her, although he could not have told how, or why, such a feeling existed. When he opened the door of the parlor, her first words were a worry over the non-arrival, by mail, of some floss-silks, needful in the bird's-nest she was working for a fire-screen.
"They have not come, Julius," she cried, with a face full of inquiry and annoyance.
"They? Who?"
"The flosses for my bird's-nest. The eggs must be in white floss."
"The bird's nest can go to Jericho, or Calcutta, or into the fire. We are ordered to leave Seat-Sandal in seven days."
"I would not be so absurd, Julius, so unfeeling, so ungentlemanly."