may be as you say. But about
this other affair. What do my father and mother say? It seems to me it
would be a splendid arrangement."

"Of course it would, Wilfrid; a splendid arrangement, for Marion and me
especially. That is what I am trying to persuade them; but your mother
has developed quite a new line of obstinacy, and your father is just as
bad."

"Don't you see, Wilfrid," Mrs. Renshaw said with tears in her eyes, "it
is only an excuse on Mr. Atherton's--"

"Harry, my dear madam, Harry," Mr. Atherton interrupted. "We have
arranged it is to be Harry in future."

"On Harry's part," Mrs. Renshaw went on, "to provide an income for us."

"But I have got to provide an income for someone," Mr. Atherton said.
"There must be an agent to look after the property for me; necessarily
that agent must have a salary; and why in the name of good sense should
not your husband be that agent as well as anyone else?"

"But you are offering a great deal too high a salary," Mr. Renshaw
urged. "You could get an excellent agent for less than half the sum you
are talking about."

"Not at all," Mr. Atherton replied; "I must have a gentleman, both for
my own sake and that of the tenants, and to get a gentleman of high
character and perfectly trustworthy, I must necessarily pay him a good
salary. I shall be a good deal in town, and my representative must
therefore be able to occupy a good position in the county; besides, as I
have told you, my income now, with this absurd addition, amounts to
something like six thousand a year. Why, in the name of goodness, should
I not be allowed, if I choose, to pay two or three hundred a year over
market price to my agent when it will afford my wife the gratification
of having her parents near her, and me the pleasure of having two dear
friends as my next neighbours. Besides, The Glade will not be a bit too
large for you when you marry, Wilfrid, and in that case either you will
have to start in a fresh place and begin all your work over again, or
your father would have to turn out to make room for you. I consider it
preposterous. What do you say, Wilfrid?"

"I do think it would be a splendid arrangement, mother," Wilfrid
answered. "You know well enough that I shall be very sorry to lose you
and father; but it would be awfully nice for Marion, and I do think that
though, as Mr. Atherton says, you and father have fallen in splendidly
with your life here, the other would be in every way better suit