WYLDER'S HAJVD*
9
side in timber he had no right to in life, as I am told; but
that don't signify much, only the house will cost me a
pretty penny to get it into order and furnished. The
rental is five thousand a-year and some hundreds, and the
rents can be got up a bit — so Larkin tells me. Do you
know anything of him? He says he did business for your
uncle once. He seems a clever fellow — a bit too clever,
perhaps — and was too much master here, I suspect, in
poor Dickie's reign. Tell me all you can make out about
him. It is a long time since I saw you, Charles; I'm
grown brown, and great whiskers. I met poor Dominick
— what an ass that chap is — but he did not know me till
I introduced myself, so I must be a good deal changed.
Our ship was at Malta when I got the letter. I was sick
of the service, and no wonder: a lieutenant — and there
likely to stick all my days. Six months, last year, on the
African coast, watching slavers — think of that! I had a
long yarn from the Viscount — advice, and that sort of
thing. I do not think he is a year older than I, but takes
airs because he's a trustee. But I only laugh at trifles that
would have riled me once. - So I wrote him a yarn in
return, and drew it uncommon mild. And he has been
useful to me; and I think matters are pretty well arranged
to disappoint the kind intention of good uncle Wylder — the
brute; he hated my father, but that was no reason to per-
secute me, and I but an infant, almost, when he died.
Well, you know he left Brandon with some charges to my
cousin Dorcas. She is a superbly fine girl. Our ship
'was at Naples when she was there two years ago; and I
saw a good deal of her. Of course it was not to be thought
of then; but matters are quite different now, and the
Viscount, who is a very sensible fellow in the main, saw it
at once. You see, the old brute meant to leave her a life
estate; but it does not amount to that, though it won't