home in the house that the children are like nephews and nieces to me. But it is a difficult case to advise upon. However, he has asked me to come and tell you that he is going away, and that he is so miserable about his debt to you, and his inability to pay, that he can’t bear to come himself even to bid you good-bye.”
“Tell him it doesn’t signify a farthing,” said Caleb, waving his hand. “We’ve had the pinch and have got over it. And now I’m going to be as rich as a Jew.”
“Which means,” said Mrs Garth, smiling at the Vicar, “that we are going to have enough to bring up the boys well and to keep Mary at home.”
“What is the treasure-trove?” said Mr Farebrother.
“I'm going to be agent for two estates, Freshitt and Tipton; and perhaps for a pretty little bit of land in Lowick besides: it's all the same family connection, and employment spreads like water if it's once set going. It makes me very happy, Mr Farebrother”—here Caleb threw back his head a little, and spread his arms on the elbows of his chair—“that I’ve got an opportunity again with the letting of the land, and carrying out a notion or two with improvements. It’s a most uncommonly cramping thing, as I've often told Susan, to sit on horseback and look over the hedges at the wrong thing, and not be able to put your hand to it to make it right. What people do who go into politics I can’t think: it drives me almost mad to see mismanagement over only a few hundred acres.”
It was seldom that Caleb volunteered so long a speech, but his happiness had the effect of mountain air: his eyes were bright, and the words came without effort.
“I congratulate you heartily, Garth,” said the Vicar. “This is the best sort of news I could have had to carry to Fred Vincy, for he dwelt a good deal on the injury he had done you in causing you to part with money—robbing you of it, he said—which you wanted for other purposes. I wish Fred were not such an idle dog; he has some very good points, and his father is a little hard upon him.”
“Where is he going?” said Mrs Garth, rather coldly.
“He means to try again for his degree, and he is going up to study before term. I have advised him to do that. I don’t urge him to enter the Church—on the contrary. But if he will go and work so as to pass, that will be some guarantee that he has energy and a will; and he is quite at sea; he doesn’t know what else to do. So far he will please his father, and I have promised in the mean time to try and reconcile Vincy to his son’s adopting some other line of life. Fred says frankly he is not fit for a clergyman, and I would do anything I could to hinder a man from the fatal step of choosing the wrong profession. He quoted to me what you said, Miss Garth—do you remember it?” (Mr Farebrother used to say “Mary” instead of “Miss Garth,” but it was part of his delicacy to treat her with the more deference because, according to Mrs Vincy’s phrase, she worked for her bread.)
