I suppose it has been the beautifully smooth and marvellously easy working of your farm-tenant system." "It works just as well as one slave-gang under one bailiff, if not better," I retorted, hotly.
"Oh, yes," Tanno drawled, "it works just as well as one slave-gang under one bailiff.

That is why you have not had to inspect your estates in Bruttium, why you have not visited Bruttium at all, why you have not so much as thought of visiting Bruttium, whereas you have had to spend more than two months here in these fascinating wilds.

You can trust your tenantry so completely that you only have to spend two months making sure they are not idling or cheating you: you can trust your Bruttian bailiff so poorly that you let him alone absolutely." I was more than a little nettled by his ironical mood.
"I spent three months of the year out of the past four years in Bruttium," I argued.

"I know every inch of the ranches perfectly.

My uncle never allowed me to become acquainted with anything up here.