continually recurring effort to remember
anything by which he could show a regard for his grandfather's wishes, without
counteracting his own cherished aims for the good of the tenants and the estate.
But it is not in human nature - only in human pretence - for a young man like
Arthur, with a fine constitution and fine spirits, thinking well of himself,
believing that others think well of him, and having a very ardent intention to
give them more and more reason for that good opinion, - it is not possible for
such a young man, just coming into a splendid estate through the death of a very
old man whom he was not fond of, to feel anything very different from exultant
joy. Now his real life was beginning; now he would have room and opportunity for
action, and he would use them. He would show the Loamshire people what a fine
country gentleman was; he would not exchange that career for any other under the
sun. He felt himself riding over the hills in the breezy autumn days, looking
after favourite plans of drainage and enclosure; then admired on sombre mornings
as the beat rider on the best horse in the hunt; spoken well of on market-days
as a first-rate landlord; by-and-by making speeches at election dinners, and
showing a wonderful knowledge of agriculture; the patron of new ploughs and
drills, the severe upbraider of negligent landowners, and withal a jolly fellow
that everybody must like, - happy faces greeting him everywhere on his own
estate, and the neighbouring families on the best terms with him. The Irwines
should dine with him every week, and have their own carriage to come in, for in
some very delicate way that Arthur would devise, the lay-impropriator of the
Hayslope tithes would insist on paying a couple of hundreds more to the Vicar;
and his aunt should be as comfortable as possible, and go on living at the
Chase, if she liked, in spite of her old-maidish ways, - at least until he was
married; and that event lay in the indistinct background, for Arthur had not yet
seen the woman who would play the lady-wife to the first-rate country gentleman.
    These were Arthur's chief thoughts, so far as a man's thoughts through hours
of travelling can be compressed into a few sentences, which are only like the
list of names telling you what are the scenes in a long, long panorama, full of
colour, of detail, and of life. The happy faces Arthur saw greeting him were not
pale abstractions, but real ruddy