it were made weather-proof--if the
omission of more expensive reparations could render the rent suitable to
his finances, which were very limited. The offer came at a fortunate
moment--when the steward had just been representing to the Squire the
necessity of doing something to keep the Casino from falling into positive
ruin, and the Squire was cursing the fates which had put the Casino into
an entail--so that he could not pull it down for the building materials.
Mr. Hazeldean therefore caught at the proposal even as a fair lady, who
has refused the best offers in the kingdom, catches at last at some
battered old captain on half-pay, and replied that, as for rent, if the
solicitor's client was a quiet respectable man, he did not care for that.
But that the gentleman might have it for the first year rent free, on
condition of paying the taxes and putting the place a little in order. If
they suited each other, they could then come to terms. Ten days
subsequently to this gracious reply, Signor Riccabocca and his servant
arrived; and, before the year's end, the Squire was so contented with his
tenant that he gave him a running lease of seven, fourteen, or twenty-one
years, at a rent nearly nominal, on condition that Signor Riccabocca would
put and maintain the place in repair, barring the roof and fences, which
the Squire generously renewed at his own expense. It was astonishing, by
little and little, what a pretty place the Italian had made of it, and
what is more astonishing, how little it had cost him. He had indeed
painted the walls of the hall, staircase, and the rooms appropriated to
himself, with his own hands. His servant had done the greater part of the
upholstery. The two between them had got the garden into order. The
Italians seemed to have taken a joint love to the place, and to deck it as
they would have done some favorite chapel to their Madonna.

It was long before the natives reconciled themselves to the odd ways of
the foreign settlers--the first thing that offended them was the exceeding
smallness of the household bills. Three days out of the seven, indeed,
both man and master dined on nothing else but the vegetables in the
garden, and the fishes in the neighboring rill; when no trout could be
caught they fried the minnows (and certainly, even in the best streams,
minnows are more frequently caught than trouts). The next thing which
angered the natives quite as much, especially the female part of the
neig