"I am learning how to take hold of the matter by the handle. Enlighten me some more, please."
"I could go on for hours into more detail, but I am going to mention only two other families, to show how my plan works. There are Dominique Montferrand and Maxime Longeman, men of thirty or thereabouts, fine strong men with their broods of six and eight. They marry young; work hard and faithfully; shun the cabarets; save their surplus earnings. They were born on the land; they love it and give it of their best toil; it responds to good treatment. Their dairy is one of the best; their stock superior. They have seventy-five acres each. I asked them to value it themselves. They showed they appreciated the worth of the land by the price they set: four thousand dollars--four thousand 'pièces'. They would not cheapen it--not even for the sake of getting it more quickly. A man appreciates that spirit. I have set the period for half-yearly payments at ten years--and I will help out with improved farm implements at the rate of interest I mentioned.
"In less than ten years, if the crops are good, it is theirs. If the crops are poor, they can still pay for it in the period set. They are young. They have something to work for during the best years of their lives."
"But how do you feel about parting with all this land that was your ancestors? Are n't you, too, bound to it by ties of value given?"
"Me? My ancestors!" he exclaimed. "Where did you get that idea? Who told you that this was ancestral land of mine?"
"Mrs. Macleod, or Jamie, intimated it was yours by inheritance."
"Hm--I must undeceive them. But _you_ are not to harbor such a thought for a moment."
"I won't if you say so--but I would like to know how things stand." I grew bold to ask, at the thought of his expressed confidence in me.
"More simple, I hope, than all that matter of seigniorial rights and transferences I read upon, in the Library before I came--and was no wiser than before."
"And you thought-- Oh, this is rich!" he said, thoroughly amused.
I nodded. "Yes; I thought you were a seignior. I dreamed dreams, before coming here of course, of retainers and ancestral halls, and then--I was met by Cale at the boat landing!"
Mr. Ewart fairly shouted as he sensed my disappointment on the romantic side upon discovering Cale.