"Has Dick's place always been his, Edward?" she asked, with her calm eyes on his.
"What do you mean?" he snapped at her; and then went on quickly in his loud, blustering tone, "Dick and I fell out, it's true, and if he had married without my sanction I should have acted in a way I'm not going to act now. I've come round—I don't deny I've come round—to be in favour of his marriage, and I'm not going to make him suffer for the misunderstanding."
At this point Dick came into the room, and the Squire said, "Well, I'll talk to you later, Nina. I want to get things settled up with Dick now."
But Dick looked at her kindly. "Mother may as well stay and take a hand in the discussion," he said. "We owe it to her that we're all friends again, and I think she's got a better head than any of us."
"Your mother was just saying," said the Squire, "that I ought to let Humphrey and Susan have the dower-house. I'm not going to do anything of the sort. There was a sort of an understanding that they should live there when I thought you and I weren't coming together again. I had to make some arrangements. But even if I didn't want you there, I don't know that I should consent to it now. Humphrey has taken up a most extraordinary attitude, and I'm very much annoyed with him. He's going to be most handsomely treated, more handsomely than he could ever have expected. Yet he's just been up here and flung out of the room in a rage because I won't promise to leave him Partisham, if you please."
"Leave him what?" asked Dick.
"Partisham; and all the land that came in with it; and Checquers too. No, I'm wrong; I'm instructed to leave that to Walter. I say it's a scandalous position for a son to take up. I'm not an old man, and I hope I've got a good many years to live yet, and I'm to have my sons quarrelling already about what I'm to do with my property after I'm dead."
"I suppose he saw his chance when I was out of favour," said Dick, "and is wild because what he hoped for didn't come off. What did you actually promise to do for him?"
"I promised to make him an allowance of fifteen hundred a year, and I'm prepared to keep my word, of course."
"Well, that's pretty good to begin with."