“No one could be kinder,” Lord Charles said in a serious voice, “but at my age I should be able to look after myself, although it’s very difficult to know how.”
“I cannot think what happened to all the money your grandfather had when he was the Duke,” the Earl quizzed him.
“I can answer that in two words – drink and cards,” Lord Charles replied. “He was an inveterate gambler and one night at Wattier’s he lost three squares and fourteen streets in the middle of London and a thousand acres of our best farming land in the country!”
“Your father must have regretted that when he inherited.”
“What did he inherit?” Lord Charles asked. “A house that was falling to pieces about our ears, land which is singularly unfertile and a multitude of debts which we are still paying off year after year wi
