"Because I know Dick."
"I suppose you wired to say you were coming down here because you didn't want to meet him?"
"I suppose I did. We might have had a row. I haven't done anything to persuade the governor to alter his will, as he's going to do, but it's going to be altered in my favour, and Dick might not feel inclined to do me justice over the matter. I don't want a row with him. We've been fairly good pals so far, and I don't want to be open enemies with him. Besides, Kencote will belong to him some day, and——"
"Well, when it does you won't be there any longer."
"Yes, I shall. I'm to have Partisham—that's pretty well settled. There would be an explosion of wrath and surprise if I intimated that I knew that and was counting on it; but you can see the governor's brain working all the time. He lets everything out, and he's let out that. It's only a question of one farm at present. I may get it with the rest, or it may go to Walter, for there's an old manor-house on it, and he thinks it would do for Walter to do up and live in when he gets tired of doctoring. He can't quite make up his mind, but it's only a hundred and fifty acres out of about two thousand, and it doesn't much matter one way or the other."
"Well, you seem pretty sure about it. I hope you may not be making a mistake. If I were Dick I should certainly have a try at getting back what he's lost. Where is this place you're going to have?"
"The house is about four miles from Kencote, and the property adjoins. My great-grandfather bought it with money his brother left him, and some of it is good building land on the outskirts of Bathgate. I've never been inside the house; it's let to a doctor and used as a private lunatic asylum."
"That's pleasant!"
"It's a fine house, and the property is rising in value every year. I shall be a richer man than Dick before I've done."
"How mercenary you are! Well, I suppose it's all right, as you say so, and I must give my consent. Oh, look, there's a table up. Come on! I feel as if I'm going to win stacks."