"I am not bound to London. I would go anywhere else,—except to Clavering."
"You never go to Ongar Park, I am told."
"I have been there."
"But they say you do not intend to go again."
"Not at present, certainly. Indeed, I do not suppose I shall ever go there. I do not like the place."
"That's just what they have told me. It is about that—partly—that I want to speak to you. If you don't like the place, why shouldn't you sell your interest in it back to the family? They'd give you more than the value for it."
"I do not know that I should care to sell it."
"Why not, if you don't mean to use the house? I might as well explain at once what it is that has been said to me. John Courton, you know, is acting as guardian for the young earl, and they don't want to keep up so large a place as the Castle. Ongar Park would just suit Mrs. Courton,"—Mrs. Courton was the widowed mother of the young earl,—"and they would be very happy to buy your interest."
"Would not such a proposition come best through a lawyer?" said Lady Ongar.
"The fact is this,—they think they have been a little hard on you."