Jon Hagadorn

Chapter 4 A Letter Inconsiderate, that's what I call it, said Lord Catterham.

He spoke in a gentle, plaintive voice, and seemed pleased with the adjective he had found.

Yes, distinctly inconsiderate.

I often find these self-made men are inconsiderate.

Very possibly that is why they amassed such large fortunes.

He looked mournfully out over his ancestral acres, of which he had today regained possession.

His daughter, Lady Eileen Brent, known to her friends and society in general as Bundle, laughed.

You'll certainly never amass a large fortune, she observed dryly, though you didn't do so badly out of the old coot sticking him for this place.

What was he like?

Presentable?

One of those large men, said Lord Ketterham, shuddering slightly, with a red square face and iron-gray hair.

Powerful, you know.

what they call a forceful personality, the kind of man you'd get if a steamroller were turned into a human being.

"'Rather tiring,' suggested Bondle sympathetically.

"'Frightfully tiring.

Full of all the most depressing virtues, like sobriety and punctuality.

I don't know which are the worst—powerful personalities or earnest politicians.

I do so prefer the cheerful inefficient.'

A cheerful inefficient would never have been able to pay you the price you asked for this old mausoleum,' Bundle reminded him.

Lord Catterham winced.