The young man flushed.
“I—I regret to say, sir, that my father does not know of my visit.”
“Then you have came to apologise for him without his leave?”
“No, sir; I have come to apologise for myself, and to ask you not to think ill of my father.”
“Humph! Very right of you to defend your father, young man.”
“He is a little hasty and irritable, sir. He has been put out ever since you took this place, for he had set his mind upon it for years. It was a disappointment to him, sir.”
“I had set my mind upon having the place, and it would have been a bitter disappointment to me to have missed it. Let me see, Mr Rolleston: with the paddock, garden, and orchard there are about six acres.”
“So I have heard, sir.”
“And your father has thousands of acres?”
“Yes, sir.”