Page 704 - vanity-fair

in examining the improvements which had been effected by
Sir Pitt’s genius and economy. And as they walked or rode,
and looked at them, they could talk without too much bor-
ing each other. And Pitt took care to tell Rawdon what a
heavy outlay of money these improvements had occasioned,
and that a man of landed and funded property was often
very hard pressed for twenty pounds. ‘There is that new
lodge-gate,’ said Pitt, pointing to it humbly with the bam-
boo cane, ‘I can no more pay for it before the dividends in
January than I can fly.’
‘I can lend you, Pitt, till then,’ Rawdon answered rather
ruefully; and they went in and looked at the restored lodge,
where the family arms were just new scraped in stone, and
where old Mrs. Lock, for the first time these many long
years, had tight doors, sound roofs, and whole windows.

704 Vanity Fair