old
Baronet survived many months, he never recovered the use of his intellect or his
speech completely, and the government of the estate devolved upon his elder son.
In a strange condition Pitt found it. Sir Pitt was always buying and mortgaging;
he had twenty men of business, and quarrels with each; quarrels with all his
tenants, and lawsuits with them; lawsuits with the lawyers; lawsuits with the
Mining and Dock Companies in which he was proprietor; and with every person with
whom he had business. To unravel these difficulties, and to set the estate
clear, was a task worthy of the orderly and persevering diplomatist of
Pumpernickel; and he set himself to work with prodigious assiduity. His whole
family, of course, was transported to Queen's Crawley, whither Lady Southdown,
of course, came too; and she set about converting the parish under the Rector's
nose, and brought down her irregular clergy, to the dismay of the angry Mrs.
Bute. Sir Pitt had concluded no bargain for the sale of the living of Queen's
Crawley; when it should drop, her Ladyship proposed to take the patronage into
her own hands, and present a young protégé to the Rectory; on which subject the
diplomatic Pitt said nothing.
    Mrs. Bute's intentions with regard to Miss Betsy Horrocks were not carried
into effect, and she paid no visit to Southampton Jail. She and her father left
the Hall, when the latter took possession of the Crawley Arms in the village, of
which he had got a lease from Sir Pitt. The ex-butler had obtained a small
freehold there likewise, which gave him a vote for the borough. The Rector had
another of these votes, and these and four others formed the representative body
which returned the two members for Queen's Crawley.
    There was a show of courtesy kept up between the Rectory and the Hall ladies
- between the younger ones at least, for Mrs. Bute and Lady Southdown never
could meet without battles, and gradually ceased seeing each other. Her Ladyship
kept her room when the ladies from the Rectory visited their cousins at the
Hall. Perhaps Mr. Pitt was not very much displeased at these occasional absences
of his mamma-in-law. He believed the Binkie family to be the greatest and wisest
and most interesting in the world, and her Ladyship and his aunt had long held
ascendency over him; but sometimes he felt that she commanded him too much. To
be considered young was complimentary doubtless; but at six-and-forty to be
treated as a boy was sometimes mortifying. Lady