elieve
I'm the only person he did tell. I'm sure he didn't tell a soul down in
Catsford. Finely put about they'll be!"

Mr. Cartmell, of Fisher, Son, & Cartmell (he was the only surviving
representative of the firm), broke off to hide a portion of his round
red face in a silver tankard; Loft, the butler, had brought it to him on
his arrival without express orders given; I had often seen the same
vessel going into Mr. Driver's study on the occasion of the lawyer's
calls.

He set the tankard--much lightened it must have been--on the mantelpiece
and walked to the window, taking a pull at his cigar. We were in my
room--my "office" it was generally called in the household. He stood
looking out, talking to me half over his shoulder.

"A man's mind turns back at times like these. I remember him hard on
forty years ago. I was a lad then, just gone into the business. Mr.
Fisher was alive--not the one you remember--not poor Nat--but the old
gentleman. Nat was the junior, and I was in the last year of my
articles. Well, Nick Driver came to the old gentleman one morning and
asked him to act for him--said he thought he was big enough by now. The
old gentleman didn't want to, but poor Nat had an eye for a man and saw
that Driver meant to get on. So they took him, and we've acted for him
ever since. It wasn't many years before he--" Cartmell paused a moment,
laying the finger-tips of his right hand against the finger-tips of his
left, and straightening his arms from the elbow like a swimmer--"before
he began to drive his wedge into the county."

The good man was fairly launched on his subject; much of it was new to
me, in detail if not in broad outline, and I listened with interest.
Besides, there was nothing else to do until the time came to start. But
the story will bear a little summarizing, like a great many other
stories; Cartmell was too fond of anecdotes. Thus summarized then:

Nicholas Driver began life as a tanner in Catsford. He was thrifty and
saved money. With the money he bought land and built some villas; with
the rent of the villas--more land. He had faith in the development of
Catsford. He got early news of the coming of the railway; he pledged
every house and every inch of land--and bought more land. So the process
went on--detailed by Mr. Cartmell, indicated here. Nicholas Driver
became moderately rich--and, by the way, his Catsford property had never
ceased to rise in value and was rising still. Then, as it see