“I shall have some fun with them,” said young Vivian; “but I’m afraid the pheasants won’t see much of me this year.”
His father explained.
“My son is going to visit our West Indian estates this winter. I want to be rid of them, for though they made my grandfather’s fortune before the days of the Emancipation, they’ve been rather a white elephant to our family for the last half century and more. The returns go from bad to worse. Indeed, there is more in it than meets the eye. But Hal’s no dunce at figures, and they’ll not hoodwink him out there, even if they attempt it.”
CHAPTER II
HANGMAN’S HUT
Minnie Marshall was a quiet, brown girl, with a manner very reserved. Her parents were dead, her years, since the age of sixteen, had been spent in service. Now marriage approached for her and, at twenty, she contemplated without fear or mistrust a husband and a home. Of immediate relations the girl possessed none, save an old aunt at Moreton, who kept a little shop there. Minnie was a beauty and well experienced in the matter of suitors, but Daniel Sweetland’s romance ran smooth and she left him not long in doubt. That young Titus Sim had been a better match, most folks declared; and even Daniel, from the strong position of success, often asked Minnie why she had put him before his friend.
Now, as the lad drove his sweetheart to inspect a cottage near his work on Dartmoor, they overtook Mr Sim returning to Middlecott Court.
“Jump up, Titus, an’ I’ll give ’e a lift to the lodge,” said Daniel.