The houses were bad?
Of course they were bad.

Cottage property did not pay; and would Mr.Dare kindly tell him where the money for repairing them was to come from?
Perhaps Mr.Dare might like to put a little of his private fortune into the cottages and the drains and the new pumps?
Dare winced.

His fortune had not gone the time-honored way of the fortunes of spirited young men of narrow means with souls above a sordid economy, but still it had gone all the same, and in a manner he did not care to think of.
It was after one of these depressing interviews with Waters that Ralph and Evelyn found the new owner of Vandon, when they rode over together to call, a day or two after the school-feast.

Poor Dare was sitting on the low ivy-covered wall of the topmost terrace, a prey to the deepest dejection.

If he had lived in Spartan days, when it was possible to conceal gnawing foxes under wearing apparel, he would have made no use of the advantages of Grecian dress for such a purpose.