'I know, Rosina, he never did; and yet where would he have been but for
the De Courcys?' So exclaimed, in her gratitude, the Lady Arabella; to
speak the truth, however, but for the De Courcys, Mr Gresham might have
been at this moment on the top of Boxall Hill, monarch of all he
surveyed.

'As I was saying,' continued the countess, 'I never approved of the
hounds coming to Greshamsbury; but yet, my dear, the hounds can't have
eaten up everything. A man with ten thousand a year ought to be able
to keep hounds; particularly as he had a subscription.'

'He says the subscription was little or nothing.'

'That's nonsense, my dear. Now, Arabella, what does he do with his
money? That's the question. Does he gamble?'

'Well,' said Lady Arabella, very slowly, 'I don't think he does.' If
the squire did gamble he must have done it very slyly, for he rarely
went away from Greshamsbury, and certainly very few men looking like
gamblers were in the habit of coming thither as guests. 'I don't think
he does gamble.' Lady Arabella put her emphasis on the word gamble, as
though her husband, if he might perhaps be charitably acquitted of that
vice, was certainly guilty of every other known in the civilized world.

'I know he used,' said Lady de Courcy, looking very wise, and rather
suspicious. She certainly had sufficient domestic reasons for
disliking the propensity; 'I know he used; and when a man begins, he is
hardly ever cured.'

'Well, if he does, I don't know it,' said the Lady Arabella.