ce I sold you Longmeadow and
those cottages, I believe.

HORNBLOWER. Dear me, now! that's what I came about.

HILLCRIST. [Subsiding again into his chair] Forgive me! Won't you
sit down?

HORNBLOWER. [Not sitting] Have ye got gout? That's unfortunate.
I never get it. I've no disposition that way. Had no ancestors,
you see. Just me own drinkin' to answer for.

HILLCRIST. You're lucky.

HORNBLOWER. I wonder if Mrs. Hillcrist thinks that! Am I lucky to
have no past, ma'am? Just the future?

MRS. H. You're sure you have the future, Mr. Hornblower?

HORNBLOWER. [With a laugh] That's your aristocratic rapier thrust.
You aristocrats are very hard people underneath your manners. Ye
love to lay a body out. But I've got the future all right.

HILLCRIST. [Meaningly] I've had the Dackmans here, Mr. Hornblower.

HORNBLOWER. Who are they--man with the little spitfire wife?

HILLCRIST. They're very excellent, good people, and they've been in
that cottage quietly thirty years.

HORNBLOWER. [Throwing out his forefinger--a favourite gesture] Ah!
ye've wanted me to stir ye up a bit. Deepwater needs a bit o' go
put into it. There's generally some go where I am. I daresay you
wish there'd been no "come." [He laughs].

MRS. H. We certainly like people to keep their word, Mr.
Hornblower.

HILLCRIST. Amy!

HORNBLOWER. Never mind, Hillcrist; takes more than that to upset
me.

[MRS. HILLCRIST exchanges a look with DAWKER who slips out
unobserved.]

HILLCRIST. You promised me, you know, not to change the tenancies.

HORNBLOWER. Well, I've come to tell ye that I have. I wasn't
expecting to have the need when I bought. Thought the Duke would
sell me a bit down there; but devil a bit he will; and now I must
have those cottages for my workmen. I've got important works, ye
know.

HILLCRIST. [Getting heated] The Jackmans have their importance
too, sir. Their heart's in that cottage.

HORNBLOWER. Have a sense of proportion, man. My works supply
thousands of people, and my, heart's in them. What's more, they
make my fortune. I've got ambitions--I'm a serious man. Suppose I
were to consider this and that, and every little potty objection--
where should I get to?--nowhere!

HILLCRIST. All the same, this sort of thing isn't done, you know.

HORNBLOWER. Not by you because ye've got no need to do it. Here ye
are, quite content on what your fathers made for ye. Ye've no
amb