And then he fell to reflecting that this marriage would be an extraordinary stroke of luck for the family.  Here they were at the last gasp, mortgaged up the eyes, when suddenly fortune, in the shape of an, on the whole, perfectly unobjectionable young man, appears, takes up the mortgages, proposes settlements to the tune of hundreds of thousands, and even offers to perpetuate the old family name in the person of his son, should he have one.  Such a state of affairs could not but be gratifying to any man, however unworldly, and the Squire was not altogether unworldly.  That is, he had a keen sense of the dignity of his social position and his family, and it had all his life been his chief and laudable desire to be sufficiently provided with the goods of this world to raise the de la Molles to the position which they had occupied in former centuries.  Hitherto, however, the tendency of events had been all the other way—­the house was a sinking one, and but the other day its ancient roof had nearly fallen about their ears.  But now the prospect changed as though by magic.  On Ida’s marriage all the mortgages, those heavy accumulations of years of growing expenditure and narrowing means, would roll off the back of the estate, and the de la Molles of Honham Castle would once more take the place in the county to which they were undoubtedly entitled.

It is not wonderful that the prospect proved a pleasing one to him, or that his head was filled with visions of splendours to come.

As it chanced, on that very morning it was necessary for Mr. Quest to pay the old gentleman a visit in order to obtain his signature to a lease of a bakery in Boisingham, which, together with two or three other houses, belonged to the estate.

He arrived just as the Squire was in the full flow of his meditations, and it would not have needed a man of Mr. Quest’s penetration and powers of observation to discover that he had something on his mind which he was longing for an opportunity to talk about.

The Squire signed the lease without paying the slightest attention to Mr. Quest’s explanations, and then suddenly asked him when the first interest on the recently-effected mortgages came due.

The lawyer mentioned a certain date.

“Ah,” said the Squire, “then it will have to be met; but it does not matter, it will be for the last time.”

Mr. Quest pricked up his ears and looked at him.

“The fact is, Quest,” he went on by way of explanation, “that there are—­well—­family arrangements pending which will put an end to these embarrassments in a natural and a proper way.”

“Indeed,” said Mr. Quest, “I am very glad to hear it.”

“Yes, yes,” said the Squire, “unfortunately I am under some restraints in speaking about the matter at present, or I should like to ask your opinion, for which as you know I have a great respect.  Really, though, I do not know why I should not consult my lawyer on a matter of business; I only consented not to trumpet the thing about.”