I'd ever be axed for forty shilling.'

Such was the style of conversation which went on at the various
tables. It had certainly been of a very different tone when the squire
was born, when he came of age, and when, just two years subsequently,
his son had been born. On each of these events similar rural fetes had
been given, and the squire himself had on these occasions been frequent
among his guests. On the first, he had been carried round by his
father, a whole train of ladies and nurses following. On the second,
he had himself mixed in all the sports, the gayest of the gay, and each
tenant had squeezed his way up to the lawn to get a sight of the Lady
Arabella, who, as was already known, was to come from Courcy Castle to
Greshamsbury to be their mistress. It was little they any of them
cared now for the Lady Arabella. On the third, he himself had borne
him; his child in his arms as his father had before borne him; he was
in the zenith of his pride, and though the tenantry had whispered that
he was somewhat less familiar with them than of yore, that he had put
on somewhat too much of the De Courcy airs, still he was their squire,
their master, the rich man in whose hand they lay. The old squire was
then gone, and they were proud of the young member and his lady bride
in spite of a little hauteur. None of them were proud of him now.

He walked once round among the guests, and spoke a few words of welcome
at each table; and as he did so the tenants got up and bowed and wished
health to the old squire, happiness to the young one, and prosperity to
Greshamsbury; but, nevertheless, it was but a tame affair.

There were also other visitors, of the gentle sort, to do honour to the
occasion; but not such swarms, not such a crowd at the mansion itself
and at the houses of the neighbouring gentry as had always been