There is precious little sense of property, and not a single
rag of loyalty or respect left in this country! But when you think of the
creatures that rule us--and the fanatics who preach to us--and the fools
who bring up our children, what else can you expect! The whole state is
rotten! The men in our great towns are ripe for any revolutionary
villainy. We shall come to blood, Faversham!"--he struck his hand
violently on the arm of his chair--"and then a dictator--the inevitable
round. Well, I have done my part. I have fought the battle of property in
this country--the battle of every squire in Cumbria, if the dolts did but
know their own interests. Instead they have done nothing but thwart and
bully me for twenty years. And young Tatham with his County Council
nonsense, and his popularity hunting, is one of the very worst of them!
Well, now I've done!--personally. I daresay they'll crow--they'll say I'm
beat. Anyway, I've done. There'll have to be fighting, but some one else
must see to it. I intend to put my affairs into fresh hands. It is my
purpose to appoint a new agent--and to give him complete control of my
property!"
Melrose stopped abruptly. His hard eyes in their deep, round orbits
were fixed on Faversham. The young man was mainly conscious of a
half-hysterical inclination to laugh, which he strangled as he best
could. Was he to be offered the post?
"And, moreover," Melrose resumed, "I want a secretary--I want a
companion--I want some one who will help me to arrange the immense, the
priceless collections there are stacked in this house--unknown to
anybody--hardly known, in the lapse of years, even to myself.
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