"Is Haines going to furnish?"
"As it appears. I should fancy it may be for somebody arriving from abroad. There's plenty of money, Haines says. I had better put a man or two on to the garden at once, had I not, sir?"
"Yes. And don't have those complaints about the locks, Dexter, as we had, you may remember, when the last house on the estate was let. Let them be examined throughout."
"I'm off then," said Mr. Dexter. "Good-day, sir. My respects to my lady. Good-day, ma'am."
"Good-day," I answered.
"Possessions bring trouble, Miss Hereford," cried Mr. Chandos, as Mr. Dexter moved away. "There are several houses on this estate, and they are almost as much plague as profit. One tenant finds fault and grumbles; another must have this, that, and the other done; a third runs away, leaving no rent behind him, and his premises dilapidated. Our last agent was not a desirable one; accepted tenants who were not eligible, and did not look after details. He died some months back, and a pretty game we found he had been carrying on; grinding the tenants down, and cheating us. Dexter, recently appointed, appears to be a keen man of business, and straightforward: that is, as agents go: they are none of them too honest."
"I think I should let the houses for myself, sir, on my own estate, and not employ an agent."
"Do you mean that as a piece of advice to me, Miss Hereford?" he returned, smiling. "What I might do on my own estate, I cannot answer for: but this one is not mine. It belongs to my brother, Sir Thomas Chandos. The mistress of it for the time being is my mother; but I take the trouble off her hands. Here's Dexter coming back again!"
"It is not often I go away and leave half my errand undone, though I have this time," Mr. Dexter called out as he came up, and extended the roll of paper he held. "This is the plan of the proposed alteration in the stables at the farm, sir, which you wished to look over. Shall I carry it to the house?"
"By no means. I'll carry it myself, if you will give it me," replied Mr. Chandos. And the agent finally departed.