day there are accounts
unsettled. Regularly every year I receive anonymous letters threatening
me with fearful punishment if I don't pay one hundred and fifty pounds
for a breakfast at the Jolly Tinkers."

"You jest: the matter indeed requires a serious vein. I wish these
accounts to be settled at once."

"And I should like to know where the funds are to come from! I have
none. The quantity of barns I am building now is something tremendous!
Then this rage for draining; it would dry up any purse. What think you
of two million tiles this year? And rents,--to keep up which we are
making these awful sacrifices--they are merely nominal, or soon will be.
They never will be satisfied till they have touched the land. That is
clear to me. I am prepared for a reduction of five-and-twenty per cent;
if the corn laws are touched, it can't be less than that. My mother
ought to take it into consideration and reduce her jointure accordingly.
But I dare say she will not; people are so selfish; particularly as she
has given you this thousand pounds, which in fact after all comes out of
my pocket."

"All this you have said to me before. What does it mean? I fought this
battle at the instigation of the family, from no feeling of my own. You
are the head of the family and you were consulted on the step. Unless
I had concluded that it was with your sanction, I certainly should not
have made my appearance on the hustings."

"I am very glad you did though," said Lord Marney; "Parliament is a
great point for our class: in these days especially, more even than in
the old time. I was truly rejoiced at your success, and it mortified the
whigs about us most confoundedly. Some people thought there was only one
family in the world to have their Richmond or their Malton. Getting you
in for the old borough was really a coup."

"Well now, to retain our interest," said Egremont, "quick payment of our
expenses is the most efficient way, believe me."

"You have got six years, perhaps seven," said Lord Marney, "and long
before that I hope to find you the husband of Lady Joan Fitz-Warene."

"I do not wish to connect the two contingencies," said Egremont firmly.

"They are inseparable," said Lord Marney.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I think this pedantic acquittance of an electioneering
account is in the highest degree ridiculous, and that I cannot interfere
in it. The legal expenses are you say paid; and if they were not, I
should feel my