Page 144 - Fairbrass

the friendly lawyer, the father would make
some effort to check these extravagances,
but he was always met with the retort, * Oh,

it s all right ; the money belongs to Fair­

brass. Fairbrass is a good little chap, and
if he could speak he’d give us everything
we want in a moment/

'You must look upon me as the master
here,1 the father would then rather angrily

say.
To this they never openly replied ; but

they did not regard him as the master. He
knew it, and, as a grievance, this took the

place of the narrow income that had harassed
bygone days,

In spite of her luxurious surroundings,
the mother, too, was a good deal worried,

for she had her visitors’ list to extend and
revise, and it caused her infinite perplexity.

Now that she had come to live at the
Big House all the ‘ best’ people of the

neighbourhood hastened to call upon her,
and when these ‘ clashed,’ as she called it,

with some of the less distinguished folk,