ched in the calm fountain of the Muse,
to supply his place in the senate, and he felt that the House of Avenel
needed one representative. He contrived, however, to devote, for the
first year or two, much more of his time to his interests at Screwstown
than to the affairs of his country, and succeeded in baffling the
over-competition to which he had been subjected by taking the competitor
into partnership. Having thus secured a monopoly at Screwstown, Dick, of
course, returned with great ardour to his former enlightened opinions in
favour of free trade. He remained some years in parliament; and though
far too shrewd to venture out of his depth as an orator, distinguished
himself so much by his exposure of "humbug" on an important Committee,
that he acquired a very high reputation as a man of business, and
gradually became so in request amongst all the members who moved for
"Select Committees," that he rose into consequence; and Mrs. Avenel,
courted for his sake, more than her own, obtained the wish of her
heart, and was received as an acknowledged habituee into the circles
of fashion. Amidst these circles, however, Dick found that his home
entirely vanished; and when he came home from the House of Commons,
tired to death, at two in the morning, disgusted at always hearing that
Mrs. Avenel was not yet returned from some fine lady's ball, he formed a
sudden resolution of cutting Parliament, Fashion, and London altogether;
withdrew his capital, now very large, from his business; bought the
remaining estates of Squire Thornhill; and his chief object of ambition
is in endeavouring to coax or bully out of their holdings all the small
freeholders round, who had subdivided amongst them, into poles and
furlongs, the fated inheritance of Randal Leslie. An excellent justice
of the peace, though more severe than your old family proprietors
generally are; a spirited landlord, as to encouraging and making, at
a proper percentage, all permanent improvements on the soil, but
formidable to meet if the rent be not paid to the day, or the least
breach of covenant be heedlessly incurred on a farm that he could let
for more money; employing a great many hands in productive labour, but
exacting rigorously from all the utmost degree of work at the smallest
rate of wages which competition and the poor-rate permit; the young
and robust in his neighbourhood never stinted in work, and the aged
and infirm, as lumber worn out, stowed away in the workh