“But how, in the name of everything absurd—how is this possible? By what stratagem could you have spent five thousand a year at Cro' Martin, and your estate was worth almost three times as much? Giving a very wide margin for waste and robbery, I 'd say five thousand could not be made away with there in a twelvemonth.”
“Your question only shows me how carelessly you must have read my letters to you, in India,” said Martin; “otherwise you could not have failed to see the vast improvements we have been carrying out on the property,—the roads, the harbors, the new quarries opened, the extent of ground covered by plantation,—all the plans, in fact, which Mary had matured—”
“Mary! Mary!” exclaimed the Captain. “And do you tell me that all these things were done at the instigation of a young girl of nineteen or twenty, without any knowledge, or even advice—”
“And who said she was deficient in knowledge?” cried Martin. “Take up the map of the estate; see the lands she has reclaimed; look at the swamps you used to shoot snipe over bearing corn crops; see the thriving village, where once the boatmen were starving, for they dared not venture out to sea without a harbor against bad weather.”
“Tell me the cost of all this. What's the figure?” said the Captain; “that's the real test of all these matters, for if your income could only feed this outlay, I pronounce the whole scheme the maddest thing in Christendom. My mother's taste for carved oak cabinets and historical pictures is the quintessence of wisdom in comparison.”
Martin was overwhelmed and silent, and the other went on,—“Half the fellows in 'ours' had the same story to tell,—of estates wasted, and fine fortunes squandered in what are called improvements. If the possession of a good property entails the necessity to spend it all in this fashion, one is very little better than a kind of land-steward to one's own estate; and, for my part, I 'd rather call two thousand a year my own, to do what I pleased with, than have a nominal twenty, of which I must disburse nineteen.”
“Am I again to remind you that this is not the question before us?” said Martin, with increased sternness.
“That is exactly the very question,” rejoined the Captain. “Mary here coolly asks you, in the spirit of this same improvement-scheme, to relinquish a year's income, and make a present of I know not how much more, simply because things are going badly with them, just as if everybody has n't their turn of ill-fortune. Egad, I can answer for it, mine has n't been flourishing latterly, and yet I have heard of no benevolent plan on foot to aid or release me!”
To this heartless speech, uttered, however, in most perfect sincerity, Martin made no reply whatever, but sat with folded arms, deep in contemplation. At length, raising his head, he asked, “And have you, then, no counsel to give,—no suggestion to make me?”
“Well,” said he, suddenly, “if Mary has not greatly overcharged all this story—”