I could not be away just now, for seven months.

This place must be looked after.

Think of the little church we are building in the village; the farms changing tenants this summer; the hundred and one things I, and I only, must settle and arrange.

You never see the bailiff; you hardly know the tenants; you do not oversee the workpeople.

So you can scarcely judge, dear Ronnie, how important is my presence here; how almost impossible it would be for me suddenly to go completely out of reach.