"Yes. When I left this place twenty-three years ago, I heard a lot about him."
"He's a miser," said Blake meditatively.
"He was when I left, and I presume he still is," replied Beaumont, "but from all I've heard, he used to be pretty gay in his youth."
"Youth," echoed Dick scornfully, "was he ever a youth?"
"I believe he was, somewhere about the Flood. Why he must be ninety now."
"Over seventy," said Blake.
"Thank you for the correction," answered Beaumont, casting a sidelong look at him; "over seventy, yes, I should say seventy-three or four, as he was about fifty when I left; he had lived a riotous life up to the age of forty, then he suddenly took to saving money, why, nobody knows."
"Oh yes, they do," said Reginald, taking his cigar out of his mouth. "It's common gossip now."
"Tell us all about it," said Nestley, settling himself in his chair.
"It's a curious story," said Blake leisurely. "Squire Garsworth led a fast life, as Beaumont says, till he was forty, then he stumbled on some books about the transmigration of the soul."