"Three half-sisters of my father's," says Dick, "as old as three men
each of 'em, and not a notion of dying among 'em! They'll see
_me_ out, I'll swear!"

It was then that that idle money had been tactfully referred to.

"I'll knock better interest out of you, Major, than the bank'll give
me!" said the Big Doctor, jovially. "I want no security from
_you_! Your word--"

"Oh, that will never do, my dear fellow," Dick had replied, as he was
meant to reply. "Of course it must be a _pukka_ business deal.
I'll give you--"

In his relief, Dick was ready to give to this kind William of
Deloraine any security that he would suggest. It was, of course, a
purely nominal affair--but still--what about a mortgage on the house
and demesne? How would that do?

The Doctor thought it would do very well.

It should be established, while it was still possible to induce the
reader to accept such a statement, that the Big Doctor was, as he
himself might have said, "not too bad a fellow altogether!" In public
life, a fighter, wily and skilled; compassionate to the poor, yet
exacting, implacably, practical recognition of his compassion. In his
own house, easy-going and autocratic; in his Church, a slave; a
confidential slave, whose gladiatorial gifts were valued, and whose
idiosyncrasies might be humoured, but none the less, a slave. He was
like an elephant in his hugeness, and suppleness, his dangerousness,