Presently, after reading a chapter or two, he would drop off into a siesta, till some message came from the men or the bailiff, asking for instructions.
The farmstead was, in fact, a mansion of large size, an old manor-house, and had it been situate near a fashionable suburb and been placed in repair would have been worth to let as much per annum as the rent of a small farm.

But it stood in a singularly lonely and outlying position, far from any village of size, much less a town, and the very highway even was so distant that you could only hear the horse's hoofs when the current of air came from that direction.

This was his aunt's--the housekeeper's--great complaint, the distance to the highway.

She grumbled because she could not see the carriers' carts and the teams go by; she wanted to know what was going on.
Harry, however, seemed contented with the placid calm of the vast house that was practically empty, and rarely left it, except for his regular weekly visit to market.

After the fashion of a thoroughbred farmer he was often rather late home on market nights.