Gleeson vouchsafed but a very sickly smile as the Knight finished, and, taking up a bundle of papers from the table, proceeded to search for something amongst them.
“This loss was most inopportune, sir—”
“No doubt of it, Gleeson; it were far better had I won my wager,” said the Knight, half testily; but the agent, scarce noticing the interruption, went on:—
“Mr. Lionel has drawn on me for seven hundred, and so late as Wednesday last I was obliged to meet a bill of his amounting to twelve hundred and eighty pounds. Thus, you will perceive that he has this year overdrawn his allowance considerably. He seems to have been as unlucky as yourself, sir.”
Soft and silky as the accents were, there was a tincture of sarcasm in the way these words were uttered that did not escape Darcy's notice; but he made no reply, and appeared to listen attentively as the other resumed:—
“Then, the expenses of the abbey have been enormous this year; you would scarcely credit the outlay for the hunting establishment; and, as I learn from Lady Eleanor that you rarely, if ever, take the field yourself—”
“Never mind that, Gleeson,” broke in the Knight, suddenly. “I 'll not sell a horse or part with a dog amongst them. My income must well be able to afford me the luxuries I have always been used to. I 'm not to be told that, with a rental of eighteen thousand a year—”
“A rental, sir, I grant you,” said Gleeson, interrupting him; “you said quite correctly,—the rental is even more than you stated; but consider the charges on that rental,—the heavy sums raised on mortgages, the debt incurred by building, the two contested elections, your losses on the turf: these make sad inroads in the amount of your income.”
“I tell you frankly, Gleeson,” said the Knight, starting up and pacing the room with hasty steps, “I 've neither head nor patience for details of this kind. I was induced to believe that my embarrassments, such as they are, were in course of liquidation; that by raising two hundred and fifty thousand pounds at four-and-a-half, or even five per cent, we should be enabled to clear off the heavy debts, for which we are paying ten, twelve,—ay, by Jove! I believe fifteen per cent.”
“Upon my word, I believe you do not exaggerate,” said Gleeson, in a conciliating accent. “Hickman's bond, though nominally bearing six per cent, is actually treble that sum. He holds 'The Grove' at the rent of a cottier's tenure, and with the right of cutting timber in Clon-a-gauve wood,—a right he is by no means chary of exercising.”