"Why?"

Grace hesitated. She began to see that Osborn could not be moved, but she
had undertaken to plead Railton's cause.

"He's an old man and has been at Mireside all his life. He has worked
hard and always paid his rent. Now he's ill and in trouble, it would be
shabby to turn him out because there's a risk--it's only a risk--that we
might lose something by letting him stay."

"You don't seem to understand a landlord's duty," Osborn rejoined. "He
is, so to speak, the steward in charge of the estate; it belongs to the
family and is not his. He must hand it on in good order and this means he
cannot indulge his sentimental impulses. If he keeps a bad tenant from
pity, or because he's afraid to seem harsh, he robs his heir."

Grace knew there were other, and perhaps worse, ways of robbing one's
heir; but she said, "Aren't you taking Hayes's view that Railton is a bad
tenant? After all, we are responsible."

"Then you suggest that Hayes is mistaken?" Osborn asked ironically.

"I don't know if he's mistaken or not," said Grace, with a steady look.
"I know he's greedy and unjust. But there's a thing you ought not to let
him do. Railton has lost forty sheep, that have strayed back to Swinset,
and Hayes doesn't mean to count them in the tally."

Osborn's face got red and he knitted his brows. "I have tried to be
patient; but this is too much! Do you know more about managing an estate
than a clever agent? Or do you think I'm a fool and Hayes leads me like a