But it was Sir James's evident annoyance that most stirred Mr. Brooke.

"Well, you know, Chettam," he said, rising, taking up his hat and

leaning on his stick, "you and I have a different system. You are all

for outlay with your farms. I don't want to make out that my system is

good under all circumstances--under all circumstances, you know."

"There ought to be a new valuation made from time to time," said Sir

James. "Returns are very well occasionally, but I like a fair

valuation. What do you say, Cadwallader?"

"I agree with you. If I were Brooke, I would choke the 'Trumpet' at

once by getting Garth to make a new valuation of the farms, and giving

him carte blanche about gates and repairs: that's my view of the

political situation," said the Rector, broadening himself by sticking

his thumbs in his armholes, and laughing towards Mr. Brooke.

"That's a showy sort of thing to do, you know," said Mr. Brooke. "But

I should like you to tell me of another landlord who has distressed his

tenants for arrears as little as I have. I let the old tenants stay

on. I'm uncommonly easy, let me tell you, uncommonly easy. I have my

own ideas, and I take my stand on them, you know. A man who does that

is always charged with eccentricity, inconsistency, and that kind of

thing. When I change my line of action, I shall follow my own ideas."

After that, Mr. Brooke remembered that there was a packet which he had

omitted to send off from the Grange, and he bade everybody hurriedly

good-by.

"I didn't want to take a liberty with Brooke," said Sir James; "I see

he is nettled. But as to what he says about old tenants, in point of

fact no new tenant would take the farms on the present terms."

"I have a notion that he will be brought round in time," said the

Rector. "But you were pulling one way, Elinor, and we were pulling

another. You wanted to frighten him away from expense, and we want to

frighten him into it. Better let him try to be popular and see that

his character as a landlord stands in his way. I don't think it

signifies two straws about the 'Pioneer,' or Ladislaw, or Brooke's

speechifying to the Middlemarchers. But it does signify about the

parishioners in Tipton being comfortable."

"Excuse me, it is you two who are on the wrong tack," said Mrs.

Cadwallader. "You should have proved to him that he loses money by bad

management, and then we should all have pulled together. If you put

him a-horseback on politics, I warn you of the consequences. It was

all very well to ride on sticks at home and call them ideas."




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