allow his thoughts out they came slowly and in jerks, with lapses at
times which the hearer had to fill in as best he could.

His father had been an enterprising free-trader, and had made money
before the family farm came to him on the death of his father. He had
married another farm and the heiress attached to it, and Peter was the
result. An only son, both parents dead, two farms and a good round sum
in the Guernsey Bank, such were Peter's circumstances.

And himself--good-tempered; lazy, since he had no need to work; not
naturally gifted mentally, and the little he had, barely stirred by the
short course of schooling which had been deemed sufficient for so
worldly-well-endowed a boy; tall, loose-limbed, easy going and easily
led, Peter was the object of much speculation among marriageably
inclined maiden hearts, and had set his own where it was not wanted.

"Ouaie," continued Tom, "an' if I'd join him in the loan the money'd all
come to me when he'd done with it."

"Aw!... Money isn't everything.... Can't get all you want sometimes
when you've got all money you want."

"G'zammin, Peter! You're as crazy 'bout that lass as th' old un is 'bout
his mines. Why don't ye ask her and ha' done with it?"

"Aw--yes. Well.... You see.... I'm makin' up to her gradual like, and in
time----"

And Bernel in the hole dug his elbow facetiously into Nance's side.