"Because you laid down the conditions, and however the thing turned out you would stand to win."
"I don't see it."
"You don't?" And David gave a loud sniff. "Why, if all the 'lives' had lived till they were eighty, I and mine would not have got our own back."
"Stuff and nonsense!" the squire said angrily. "Besides, you agreed to the conditions."
"I know it," David answered sadly. "You would grant me no better, and I was hopeful and ignorant, and looked at things through rose-coloured glasses."
"I'm sure the farm has turned out very well," the squire replied, with a hurried glance round him.
"It's just beginning to yield some little return," David said, looking off to the distant fields. "For years it's done little more than pay the ground rent. But this year it seems to have turned the corner. It ought to be a good little farm in the future." And David sighed.
"Yes, it ought to be a good farm, and what is more, it is a good farm," the squire said fiercely. "Upon my soul, I believe I've let it too cheap!"
"You've done what, sir?" David questioned, lifting his head suddenly.
"I said I believed I had let it too cheap. It's worth more than I am going to get for it."