There's no sense i' letting folks be
unhappy, when they might be taking life wi' a bit o' comfort."
"But, then, our faith would not be exercised."
"I don't much mind about that. I'd far rather hev things settled. I
don't like being worritted and unsettled i' my mind."
The squire spoke with a touching irritability, and every one looked
sadly at him. The day after Antony's frank statement of his plans,
the squire rode early into Bradford and went straight to the house
of old Simon Whaley. For three generations the Whaleys had been the
legal advisers of the Hallams, and Simon had touched the lives or
memory of all three. He was a very old man, with a thin, cute face,
and many wrinkles on his brow; and though he seldom left his house,
age had not dimmed his intellect, or dulled his good-will toward the
family with whom he had been so frequently associated.
"Why-a! Hallam! Come in, squire; come in, and welcome. Sit thee down,
old friend. I'm fain and glad to see thee. What cheer? And whativer
brings thee to Bradford so early?"
"I'm in real trouble, Whaley."
"About some wedding, I'll be bound."
"No; neither love nor women folk hev owt to do wi' it. Antony Hallam
wants me to break t' entail and give him L50,000."
"Save us a'! Is t' lad gone by his senses?"
Then the squire repeated, as nearly as possible, all that Antony had
said to him; after which both men sat quite still; the lawyer thinking,
the squire watching the lawyer.
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