Page:Austen - Mansfield Park, vol. II, 1814.djvu/44

 and compute—and in the intervals of business to walk into his stables and his gardens, and nearest plantations; but active and methodical, he had not only done all this before he resumed his seat as master of the house at dinner, he had also set the carpenter to work in pulling down what had been so lately put up in the billiard room, and given the scene painter his dismissal, long enough to justify the pleasing belief of his being then at least as far off as Northampton. The scene painter was gone, having spoilt only the floor of one room, ruined all the coachman's sponges, and made five of the under servants idle and dissatisfied; and Sir Thomas was in hopes that another day or two would suffise to wipe away every outward memento of what had been, even to the destruction of every unbound copy of "Lover's Vows" in the house, for he was burning all that met his eye.

Mr. Yates was beginning now to understand