You would pay 5 per cent. for
the money and only get 3 per cent from the land." The old lady
understood all about it.
"I could pay it off in two years," said the sick man.
"There need be no paying off, and no mortgage, if I did it I almost
believe I have got enough to do it." He knew very well that she had
much more than enough. "I think more of this property than of
anything in the world, my dear."
"Chowton Farm could be yours, you know."
"What should I do with Chowton Farm? I shall probably be in my
grave before the slow lawyer would have executed the deeds." And I
in mine, thought he to himself, before the present owner has quite
made up his mind to part with his land. "What would a little place
like that do for me? But in my father-in-law's time it was part of
the Bragton property. He sold it to pay the debts of a younger son,
forgetting, as I thought, what he owed to the estate;--"It had in
truth been sold on behalf of the husband of this old woman who was
now complaining. "And if it can be recovered it is our duty to get
it back again. A property like this should never be lessened. It is
in that way that the country is given over to shopkeepers and
speculators and is made to be like France or Italy. I quite think
that Chowton Farm should be bought. And though I might die before
it was done, I would find the money.
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