hat it is that I want.
What would you say if a man told you to wait while your hand was in
the fire?"

"But you are in possession, Mr. Newton."

"No;--I'm not. I'm not in possession. I'm only a lodger in the place.
I can do nothing. I cannot even build a farm-house for a tenant."

"Surely you can, Mr. Gregory."

"What;--for him! You think that would be one of the delights of
possession? Put my money into the ground like seed, in order that the
fruit may be gathered by him! I'm not a good enough Christian, Mr.
Carey, to take much delight in that. I'll tell you what it is, Mr.
Carey. The place is a hell upon earth to me, till I can call it my
own." At last he left his lawyer, and went back to Newton Priory,
having given instructions that the transaction should be re-opened
between the two lawyers, and that additional money, to the extent of
L5,000, should by degrees be offered.

CHAPTER XXIII.

"I'LL BE A HYPOCRITE IF YOU CHOOSE."

There could hardly be a more unhappy man than was the Squire on his
journey home. He had buoyed himself up with hope till he had felt
certain that he would return to Newton Priory its real and permanent
owner, no longer a lodger in the place, as he had called himself to
the lawyer, but able to look upon every tree as his own, with power
to cut down every oak upon the property; though, as he knew very
well, he would rather spill blood from his veins than cut down one of
them. But in that case he would preserve the oaks,--preserve them by
his own decision,--because they were his own, and because he could
give them to his own son. His son should cut them down if he pleased.
And then the power of putting up would be quite as sweet to him as
the power of pulling down. What pleasure would he have in making
every deficient house upon the estate efficient, when he knew that
the stones as he laid them would not become the property of his
enemy. He was a man who had never spent his full income. The property
had been in his hands now for some fifteen years, and he had already
amassed a considerable sum of money,--a sum which would have
enabled him to buy out his nephew altogether, without selling an
acre,--presuming the price already fixed to have been sufficient. He
had determined to sell something, knowing that he could not do as he
would do with the remainder if his hands were empty. He had settled
it all in his mind;--how Ralph, his Ralph, must marry, and have a
separate income. Ther