“But you know the proverb, sir,” said Bryan, smiling, “that there's no time like the present; besides it's only a word.”
“What is it?” asked the landlord.
“About the leases, sir,” replied M'Mahon, “to know when it would be convanient for you to sign them.”
Chevydale looked, from Bryan to the agent, and again from the agent to Bryan, as if anxious to understand what the allusion to leases meant. At this moment a servant entered, saying, “The horses are at the door, gentlemen.”
“Come some other day, M'Mahon,” said Fethertonge; “do you not see that we are going out to ride now—going on our canvass? Come to my office some other day; Mr. Chevydale will remain for a considerable time in the country now, and you need not feel so eager in the matter.”
“Yes, come some other day, Mr.—Mr.—ay—M'Mahon; if there are leases to sign, of course I shall sign them; I am always anxious to do my duty as a landlord. Come, or rather Fethertonge here will manage it. You know I transact no business here; everything is done at his office, unless when he brings me papers to sign. Of course I shall sign any necessary paper.”
Bryan then withdrew, after having received another friendly nod of remonstrance, which seemed to say, “Why will you thus persist, when you see that he is not disposed to enter into these matters now? Am I not your friend?” Still, however, he did not feel perfectly at ease with the result of his visit. A slight sense of uncertainty and doubt crept over him, and in spite of every effort at confidence, he found that that which he had placed in Fethertonge, if it did not diminish, was most assuredly not becoming stronger.
CHAPTER XVI.—A Spar Between Kate and Philip Hogan
—Bryan M'Mahon is Cautioned against Political Temptation—He Seeks Major Vanston's Interest with the Board of Excise.