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that they till, and which they cause to bring forth its increase." "But men who are not noble let their lands in Europe; nay, the very serfs, as they become free and obtain riches, buy lands and let them, in some parts of the old world, as I, have heard and read." "All feudal, sir. The whole system is pernicious and feudal, serf or no serf." "But, Mr. Newcome," said Mary Warren, quietly, though with a sort of demure irony in her manner that said she was not without humour, and understood herself very well, "even you let your land--land that you lease, too, and which you do not own, except as you hire it from Mr. Littlepage." Seneca gave a hem, and was evidently disconcerted; but he had too much of the game of the true progressive movement--which merely means to _lead_ in changes, though they may lead to the devil--to give the matter up. Repeating the hem, more to clear his brain than to clear his throat, he hit upon his answer, and brought it out with something very like triumph. "That is one of the evils of the present system, Miss Mary. Did I own the two or three fields you mean, and to attend to which I have no leisure, I might _sell_ them; but now, it is impossible, since I can give no deed. The instant my poor uncle dies--and he can't survive a week, being, as you must know, nearly gone--the whole property, mills, tavern, farms, timber-lot and all, fall in to young Hugh Littlepage, who is off frolicking in Europe, doing no good to himself or others, I'll venture to say, if the truth were known. That is another of the hardships of the feudal system; it enables one man to travel in idleness, wasting his substance in foreign lands, while it keeps another at home, at the plough-handles and the cart-tail." "And why do you suppose Mr. Hugh Littlepage wastes his substance, and is doing himself and country no good in foreign lands, Mr. Newcome? That is not at all the character I hear of him, nor is it the result that I expect to see from his travels." "The money he spends in Europe might do a vast deal of good at Ravensnest, sir." "For my part, my dear sir," put in Mary again, in her quiet but pungent way, "I think it remarkable that neither of our late governors has seen fit to enumerate the facts just mentioned by Mr. Newcome among those that are opposed to the spirit of the institutions. It is, indeed, a great hardship that Mr. Seneca Newcome cannot sell Mr. Hugh Littlepage's land." "I complain les
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