John and shook a fist in his face, as sometimes happened, he'd
look the picture of sorrow and amazement and express his undying regrets.
But he never went back on nothing, and near though he might sail to the
wind, none ever had a handle by which to drag him before the Law. 'Twas
just the very genius of selfishness that sped him on his way victorious
every time.

He never took no hand in public affairs, nor offered for the Borough
Council, nor nothing like that. He might have been a useful man in Little
Silver, where we didn't boast more brains than we needed, nor yet enough;
but John Warner said he weren't one of the clever ones and felt very
satisfied with them that were, and applauded such men as did a bit of work
for nothing out of their public spirit. For praise, though cheap, is
always welcome, and he had a great art to be generous with what cost him
nothing.

He'd pay a man a thought above his market value if he judged him worth it,
and he often said that on a farm like Wych Elm, where everything was
carried out on the highest grade of farming, 'twas money in any young
man's pocket to come to him at all. And nobody could deny that either. And
he never meddled in his neighbour's affairs, or offered advice, or
unfavourably criticised anything that happened outside his own boundaries.

One daughter only John Warner had, and that was all his family, and her
mother struck the first stroke against his happiness and content, for she
died and left him a widower at five-and-forty. She fell in a consumption,
much to his regret, after they'd been wedded fifteen years; and their girl
was called Jane after her, and 'twas noted that though sprung of such
handsome parents, Jane didn't favour either but promised to be a very
homely woman--a promise she fulfilled.

Her father trained her most industrious to be his right hand, and she grew
up with a lively admiration for him and his opinions. Farming interested
her a lot, and men mildly interested her; but among the hopeful young
blades with an eye on the future who offered to keep company and so on,
there was none Jane saw who promised to be a patch on her parent, and
after his worldly wisdom and grasp of life and shrewd sense, she found the
boys of her own age no better than birds in a hedge. Indeed she had no use
for any among 'em, but made John Warner her god, as he meant she should
do; for, as she waxed in strength and wits, he felt her a strong right
hand. In fact, he to