that would, or could, bring interest into
an old man's life. Common sense demanded why on earth he had not
suggested an alternative idea, something a trifle less mad. And it was
mad. There did not now appear one single reasonable point in it, though
very assuredly there were quite a vast number of unreasonable ones.

In the first place, and it seemed to him nearly, if not quite, the most
unreasonable point, Nicholas had known nothing whatever about the young
man he had elected to make his heir,--nothing, that is, beyond the fact
that he had known the young man's father, and had once seen Antony
himself when Antony was a child. There had even been very considerable
difficulty in obtaining knowledge of his whereabouts.

In the second place, it appeared quite absurd to appoint the young man to
the position of under-gardener at the Hall. It was more than probable
that he knew nothing whatever about gardening. It was true that, if he
did not, he could learn. But then Golding, the head gardener, might not
unreasonably find matter for amazement and comment in the fact that a
young and ignorant man, who was paid a pound a week and allowed to rent a
furnished cottage, should be thrust upon him, rather than an experienced
man, or an ignorant boy who would have received at the most eight
shillings a week, and have lived at his own home. Amazement and comment
were to be avoided, that had been Nicholas's idea, and yet, to Doctor
Hilary's mind they ran the risk of being courted from the outset. In the
third place, how was it likely that a man of education--and it had been
ascertained that Antony was a university man--could comport himself like
a labourer in any position,--gardener, farm-hand, or chauffeur? The
conditions had stated that he was to do so. But could he? There was the
point.

The more Doctor Hilary thought about the conditions, the madder they
appeared to him. Yet, having undertaken the job of carrying the mad
scheme through, he could not possibly back out at the eleventh hour. He
could only hope for the best, but it must be confessed that he was not
exceedingly optimistic about that best. And further, he was not
exceedingly optimistic about the young man. He could imagine himself, in
a like situation, consigning Nick and his conditions to the nether
regions; certainly not submitting meekly to a year's effacement of his
personality for the sake of money. Such conditions would have enraged
him.

No; he was not optimis