His labours had improved the estate too; and he could not endure to think how some lucky purchaser might profit by his prudence and sagacity.

There had been some fine old oaks on the land when he inherited it, all mercilessly stubbed-up at the beginning of his reign; there had been tall straggling hedgerows, all of a tangle with blackberry bushes, ferns, and dog-roses, hazel and sloe trees, all done away with by his order.

No, he could never bring himself to sell Wyncomb.

Nor was the purchase of an annuity a transaction which he was inclined to accomplish.

It was a pleasing notion certainly, that idea of concentrating all his hoarded money upon the remaining years of his life--retiring from the toils of agriculture, and giving himself up for the rest of his days to an existence of luxurious idleness.