burnt or not," said Lord Marney. "It's very hard, don't you
think so?"

"But these ricks were Bingley's?"

"But he was not insured, and he will want some reduction in
his rent, and if I do not see fit to allow it him, which I
probably shall not, for he ought to have calculated on these
things, I have ricks of my own, and they may be burnt any
night."

"But you, of course, are insured?"

"No, I am not; I calculate 'tis better to run the risk."

"I wonder why ricks are burnt now, and were not in old days,"
said Egremont.

"Because there is a surplus population in the kingdom," said
Lord Marney, "and no rural police in the county."

"You were speaking of the election, George," said Egremont,
not without reluctance, yet anxious, as the ice had been
broken, to bring the matter to a result. Lord Marney, before
the election, had written, in reply to his mother consulting
him on the step a letter with which she was delighted, but
which Egremont at the time could have wished to have been more
explicit. However in the excitement attendant on a first
contest, and influenced by the person whose judgment always
swayed, and, in the present case, was peculiarly entitled to