“Come, Quest, come in.  We have a quarter of an hour before luncheon, and can get our business over,” and he led the way through the passage into the tapestried and panelled vestibule, where he took his stand before the empty fireplace.

Mr. Quest followed him, stopping, ostensibly to admire a particularly fine suit of armour which hung upon the wall, but really to gain another moment for reflection.

“A beautiful suit of the early Stuart period, Mr. de la Molle,” he said; “I never saw a better.”

“Yes, yes, that belonged to old Sir James, the one whom the Roundheads shot.”

“What! the Sir James who hid the treasure?”

“Yes.  I was telling that story to our new neighbour, Colonel Quaritch, last night—­a very nice fellow, by the way; you should go and call upon him.”

“I wonder what he did with it,” said Mr. Quest.

“Ah, so do I, and so will many another, I dare say.  I wish that I could find it, I’m sure.  It’s wanted badly enough now-a-days.  But that reminds me, Quest.  You will have gathered my difficulty from my note and what George told you.  You see this man Janter—­thanks to that confounded fellow, Major Boston, and his action about those College Lands—­has thrown up the Moat Farm, and George tells me that there is not another tenant to be had for love or money.  In fact, you know what it is, one can’t get tenants now-a-days, they simply are not to be had.  Well, under these circumstances, there is, of course, only one thing to be done that I know of, and that is to take the farm in hand and farm it myself.  It is quite impossible to let the place fall out of cultivation—­and that is what would happen otherwise, for if I were to lay it down in grass it would cost a considerable sum, and be seven or eight years before I got any return.”

The Squire paused and Mr. Quest said nothing.

“Well,” he went on, “that being so, the next thing to do is to obtain the necessary cash to pay Janter his valuation and stock the place—­ about four thousand would do it, or perhaps,” he added, with an access of generous confidence, “we had better say five.  There are about fifty acres of those low-lying meadows which want to be thoroughly bush drained—­bushes are quite as good as pipes for that stiff land, if they put in the right sort of stuff, and it don’t cost half so much—­ but still it can’t be done for nothing, and then there is a new wagon shed wanted, and some odds and ends; yes, we had better say five thousand.”

Still Mr. Quest made no answer, so once more the Squire went on.