He was a free agent of course, and equally of course the title and the property must ultimately be his.

But something of a bargain might have been made with him when all the privileges of a son were offered to him.
When he was told that he might have all Scroope to himself,--for it amounted nearly to that; that he might hunt there and shoot there and entertain his friends; that the family house in London should be given up to him if he would marry properly; that an income almost without limit should be provided for him, surely it would not have been too much to demand that as a matter of course he should leave the army! But this had not been done; and now there was an Irish Roman Catholic widow with a daughter, with seal-shooting and a boat and high cliffs right in the young man's way! Lady Scroope could not analyse it, but felt all the danger as though it were by instinct.

Partridge and pheasant shooting on a gentleman's own grounds, and an occasional day's hunting with the hounds in his own county, were, in Lady Scroope's estimation, becoming amusements for an English gentleman.

They did not interfere with the exercise of his duties.

She had by no means brought herself to like the yearly raids into Scotland made latterly by sportsmen.