I put my tenants on probation.

It seems hopeless.

I'll start works for the really needy.

If they show a desire to take advantage of my interest in them I'll extend my operations.

If they do NOT I'll stop everything and put the estate on the market." Burke looked at him and smiled a dry, cracked smile.
He was a thin, active, grizzled man, well past fifty, with keen, shrewd eyes that twinkled with humour, or sparkled with ferocity, or melted with sorrow as the mood seized him.