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