He was naturally humane, and rustic offenders, especially poachers and runaway farm servants, used to think themselves fortunate if they were taken before him and not before Squire Powys, who was sure to give them the sharp edge of the law.

So now Sir Charles was useful as well as ornamental.
Thus passed fourteen months of happiness, with only one little cloud--there was no sign yet of a son and heir.

But let a man be ever so powerful, it is an awkward thing to have a bitter, inveterate enemy at his door watching for a chance.

Sir Charles began to realize this in the sixteenth month of his wedded bliss.

A small estate called "Splatchett's" lay on his north side, and a marginal strip of this property ran right into a wood of his.