At all events Trevor’s manner became a little diplomatic and reserved.
“Why don’t I? Oh! fifty reasons—a hundred. There are all sorts of difficulties; I don’t mean, of course, anything mysterious—or that sort of bosh: this house and the property, everyone knows, are very well. I’ve been four years in possession, and I’ve no fault to find with Revington—either tenants or this,” and he nodded towards the ceiling, indicating that he meant the house.
“But—you know—for a fellow like me; we’ve been here, you know, a long time: there was a Trevor here in Henry the Fifth’s time—but you know more history than I do.”
Trevor considered his family and his domicile as a part of English history, and William, who was in an unpleasant mood just then, said—
“And the estate was larger, wasn’t it?”
“Ah, ha—yes certainly—that is, there was another estate,” acquiesced Trevor, eagerly, but looking a little put out. “The Torhamptons, by-the-bye, have got it now; a marriage, or something.”
“A purchase, I thought,” insisted Maubray.
“A purchase! very likely. It does not signify sixpence if the thing’s gone, and gone it is. But you see, having been here for a longer time, I’m afraid, than you and I are likely to live; and having a sort of place among the people—you understand—a kind of a—quite undeserved—only because we have been here so long—that sort of an influence—or whatever it is—a fellow isn’t as free as you’d fancy. By Jove! he’s tied up, I can tell you; horribly tied up. A poor devil like me. Egad, he’s not like a man with an income out of the funds—there’s that sort of thing, I suppose it is the shadow—don’t you see—of the old feudal thing, but so it is. There’s a sort of rural opinion, a kind of loyalty, in a very small way, of course; but it is that sort of feeling—and there’s no use, you know, in blinking it; and a fellow has to consider, you know, how his tenants and people would receive it; and—ask anyone—you can’t conceive how a fellow’s hampered, really hampered, now.”
“Do you really think they care a farthing?” asked Maubray.
“Care! You’ve no idea,” exclaimed his friend.