Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/76

 shall never know, for Ponderby rarely confided in any one.

The young nobleman returned home at eleven o'clock, and half an hour later Wilson, the agent, put in an appearance. Wilson was a very brisk, business-like man, with a hard face, a lowering brow, and lips which had a touch of tyranny about them. Although obsequious enough to Stranleigh, he was very domineering to those over whom he exerted power, and was generally disliked by villagers and tenants. It was his boast that he stood no nonsense from that class of people, and his attitude was one of protection so far as Stranleigh was concerned, not concealing the fact that but for him his lordship would be robbed right and left. If any of the tenants ventured to appeal to Stranleigh direct, under a sense of oppression, that tenant was almost certain to meet misfortune in his future career, although it was rarely possible to trace calamity to Wilson himself.

Lord Stranleigh was perhaps unduly lenient on these occasions, for whoever came to him with a hard-luck story found his complaint promptly and favourably attended to, but as Wilson became better known, these appeals to Cæsar were less and less frequent. Although Stranleigh