A Change of Heir by Michael Innes Read Free Book Online Page B

think of things like passports, bank accounts, signatures, proofs of–’
    ‘Poppycock. Aunt Prudence will simply march you in on her bank manager, and you’ll find the fellow has put down the red carpet. And so with the family solicitor and everybody else. You just don’t realise the enormous respectability of the position you are going to enjoy. For instance, when you go into the village church on Sunday to read the Lessons–’
    ‘When I what ?’
    ‘Lord, yes. You’ll have to accept your responsibilities, you know. I don’t disguise the fact from you for a moment. But, as I was saying, when you do that, do you expect the dear old vicar to step forward and demand documentary evidence that you are indeed the long-absent Nicholas Comberford? Of course not! Now, get on with Aunt Prudence’s letter. You haven’t yet got to her proposal. And it’s worth getting to.’
     
    However, my own Recollection is very clear as to the high Regard in which my dear Husband held you in those early and formative Years. It was his Habit to remark that had you been born directly into the Line of our Properties, you would have come to justify the Privilege by an exact Attention to the Duties of such a Station.
     
    At this point, Gadberry produced sharp laughter.
    ‘Think of that!’ he said. ‘Your great-uncle, if you ask me, can’t have had all that much stuffed between his ears.’
    ‘I rather agree, George. But now, you’ll find, the thing’s coming. You’re on the brink.’
     
    These are, as you must be aware, difficult Times for the Landed interest. The Administration is unsympathetic, and make little Doubt but that the present Prime Minister – whose Name escapes me for the Moment – would be hard put to it to distinguish Wheat from Oats, or a Dog Fox from a Vixen. In such iron Times a strong Hand is needed for the management of large Estates, and although much may reasonably be left to one’s Agents, Bailiffs and Men of Business it is nevertheless increasingly incumbent upon one to exercise a strict Surveillance…
     
    Once more, Gadberry broke off abruptly.
    ‘I ask you!’ he said. ‘How the hell am I going to manage an estate? The notion’s absurd.’
    ‘That’s all rot. It’s simply that the old girl is failing–’
    ‘Her letter doesn’t read as if she’s failing.’
    ‘Well, she is. Only a year or two to go, as I’ve said. And she’s beginning to fuss. Of course those agents and bailiffs and people are perfectly competent to do their job. They wouldn’t thank you for really trying to poke your nose in. You’ll just ride around now and then to have an affable word with the tenants. Nothing more than that. And now, George, go on to what the old girl’s prepared to run to.’
     
    It is this, my dear Nicholas, that I have determined to call upon you to do. Although hale of Body and – I believe – of Mind, I am yet conscious that my Years require me to give serious Thought no less to Matters temporal than to Matters eternal. If I am to discharge the Duties of the Station to which it has pleased Providence to call me, I must give anxious Consideration to the Future of Bruton – and that alike in the Choice of its Proprietor and the Well-being and proper Control of its labouring Poor. Are you likely to be a just Repository of my Confidence in these Regards? It is in an Endeavour to determine this all-important Issue that I now make the following probationary Proposal.
    First, you shall present yourself to me at Bruton with all convenient Speed. Secondly, being domesticated here, you shall with all due Diligence endeavour to prove yourself worthy of my Trust. Thirdly, and in return, I shall make you an annual Allowance of Money – an Allowance which must be neither improperly lavish nor, on the other hand, improperly exiguous in the Light of our Consequence in the County. Five thousand Pounds suggests itself to me as a reasonable Figure. And fourthly, when your Competence and Probity shall have