"Exactly: that makes it so annoying that Brooke should have put a man
who has a sort of connection with the family in a position of that
kind. For my part, I think Ladislaw is rather a fool for accepting."
"It is Aquinas's fault," said Mrs. Cadwallader. "Why didn't he use his
interest to get Ladislaw made an attache or sent to India? That is how
families get rid of troublesome sprigs."
"There is no knowing to what lengths the mischief may go," said Sir
James, anxiously. "But if Casaubon says nothing, what can I do?"
"Oh my dear Sir James," said the Rector, "don't let us make too much of
all this. It is likely enough to end in mere smoke. After a month or
two Brooke and this Master Ladislaw will get tired of each other;
Ladislaw will take wing; Brooke will sell the 'Pioneer,' and everything
will settle down again as usual."
"There is one good chance--that he will not like to feel his money
oozing away," said Mrs. Cadwallader. "If I knew the items of election
expenses I could scare him. It's no use plying him with wide words
like Expenditure: I wouldn't talk of phlebotomy, I would empty a pot of
leeches upon him. What we good stingy people don't like, is having our
sixpences sucked away from us."
"And he will not like having things raked up against him," said Sir
James. "There is the management of his estate. They have begun upon
that already. And it really is painful for me to see. It is a
nuisance under one's very nose. I do think one is bound to do the best
for one's land and tenants, especially in these hard times."
"Perhaps the 'Trumpet' may rouse him to make a change, and some good
may come of it all," said the Rector. "I know I should be glad. I
should hear less grumbling when my tithe is paid. I don't know what I
should do if there were not a modus in Tipton."
"I want him to have a proper man to look after things--I want him to
take on Garth again," said Sir James. "He got rid of Garth twelve
years ago, and everything has been going wrong since. I think of
getting Garth to manage for me--he has made such a capital plan for my
buildings; and Lovegood is hardly up to the mark. But Garth would not
undertake the Tipton estate again unless Brooke left it entirely to
him."
"In the right of it too," said the Rector. "Garth is an independent
fellow: an original, simple-minded fellow. One day, when he was doing
some valuation for me, he told me point-blank that clergymen seldom
understood anything about business, and did mischief when they meddled;
but he said it as quietly and respectfully as if he had been talking to
me about sailors. He would make a different parish of Tipton, if
Brooke would let him manage. I wish, by the help of the 'Trumpet,' you
could bring that round."