hout its ever affecting him in the least), and was very
prompt and kind-hearted in all his actions; but he was not accustomed to
women, as my lady once said, and would judge in all things for himself.
My lady had expected, I think, to find some one who would take his
notions on the management of her estate from her ladyship's own self; but
he spoke as if he were responsible for the good management of the whole,
and must, consequently, be allowed full liberty of action. He had been
too long in command over men at sea to like to be directed by a woman in
anything he undertook, even though that woman was my lady. I suppose
this was the common-sense my lady spoke of; but when common-sense goes
against us, I don't think we value it quite so much as we ought to do.

Lady Ludlow was proud of her personal superintendence of her own estate.
She liked to tell us how her father used to take her with him in his
rides, and bid her observe this and that, and on no account to allow such
and such things to be done. But I have heard that the first time she
told all this to Captain James, he told her point-blank that he had heard
from Mr. Smithson that the farms were much neglected and the rents sadly
behind-hand, and that he meant to set to in good earnest and study
agriculture, and see how he could remedy the state of things. My lady
would, I am sure, be greatly surprised, but what could she do? Here was
the very man she had chosen herself, setting to with all his energy to
conquer the defect of ignorance, which was all that those who had
presumed to offer her ladyship advice had ever had to say against him.
Captain James read Arthur Young's "Tours" in all his spare time, as long
as he was an invalid; and shook his head at my lady's accounts as to how
the land had been cropped or left fallow from time immemorial. Then he
set to, and tried too many new experiments at once. My lady looked on in
dignified silence; but all the farmers and tenants were in an uproar, and
prophesied a hundred failures. Perhaps fifty did occur; they were only
half as many as Lady Ludlow had feared; but they were twice as many,
four, eight times as many as the captain had anticipated. His openly-
expressed disappointment made him popular again. The rough country
people could not have understood silent and dignified regret at the
failure of his plans, but they sympathized with a man who swore at his
ill success--sympathized, even while they chuckled over