On the Tuesday he gave his workmen about the
farm such a routing as they had not received for many a month.
There had not been a dung heap or a cowshed which he had not
visited, nor a fence about the place with which he had not found
fault. He was at it all day, trying thus to console himself, but in
vain; and when his mother in the evening said some word of her
misery in regard to the turkeys he had told her that as far as he
was concerned Goarly might poison every fox in the county. Then the
poor woman knew that matters were going badly with her son. On the
Wednesday, when the hounds met within two miles of Chowton, he
again stayed at home; but in the afternoon he rode into
Dillsborough and contrived to see the attorney without being seen
by any of the ladies of the family. The interview did not seem to
do him any good. On the Thursday morning he walked across to
Bragton and with a firm voice asked to see the Squire. Morton who
was deep in the boundary question put aside his papers and welcomed
his neighbour.
Now it must be explained that when, in former years, his son's
debts had accumulated on old Mr. Reginald Morton, so that he had
been obliged to part with some portion of his unentailed property,
he had sold that which lay in the parish of St. John's,
Dillsborough. The lands in Bragton and Mallingham he could not
sell; but Chowton Farm which was in St.
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