His father had had the land before him.
Pembroke, the clergyman, had seen his father.

He had never happened to see the son, who would now be between forty and fifty years of age; but when Madame Le Maitre had come to look after the farm on Cloud Island, she had made herself known to him as in charge of her husband's affairs.
She found that she could not get the land worked by the islanders, and had induced O'Shea, who it seemed was an old farm hand of her own father's, to settle upon this farm, which was a richer one than the one he had had upon the mainland.

The soil of the islands, Pembroke said, was in reality exceedingly rich, but in no case had it ever been properly worked, and he was in hopes that now Madame Le Maitre might produce a model farm, which would be of vast good in showing the islanders how much they lost by their indifferent manner of treating their land.
"Why did she come to the islands ?" "Conscientiousness, I think.

The land here was neglected; the people here certainly present a field white to harvest to anyone who has the missionary spirit." "Is she--is she very devout ?" asked Caius.
"Well, yes, in her own way she is--mind, I say in her own way.

I couldn't tell you, now, whether she is Protestant or Papist; I don't believe she knows herself." "He that sitteth between two stools----" suggested Caius, chiefly for want of something to say.
"Well, no, I wouldn't say that.