For the time, at all events, Frank seemed to do very well with all these farms to look after.

Of course the same old-fashioned folk made ill-natured remarks, and insisted upon it that he merely got what he could out of the soil, and did not care in the least how the farming was done.
Nevertheless, he flourished--the high prices and general inflation of the period playing into his hand.
Frank was now a very big man, the biggest man thereabout.

And it was now that he began to tap another source of supply--to, as it were, open a fresh cask--_i.e._ the local bank.

At first he only asked for a hundred or so, a mere bagatelle, for a few days--only temporary convenience.

The bank was glad to get hold of what really looked like legitimate business, and he obtained the bagatelle in the easiest manner--so easily that it surprised him.