How it opens
Rood Hall was a great house dying by inches in a wet county, and you were its heir, and the debts were senior to you.
Your grandfather had gambled away four thousand acres and, with them, the family's right to be consulted about anything.
The SquireI'll hear no thanks and no arguments. Frank wants a companion with more in him than gunpowder, and that is an end to it.
Then I will owe you the schooling, sir, and you will find me particular about what else I owe.
The SquireParticular is right. A boy who watches his debts will not add mine to them.
Choose
Take it as your right, and thank him exactly as much as the thing deserves.
Take it warmly, and let him feel the whole weight of what he has done.
Ask instead for five years' grace on the Rood mortgages, and school yourself at home.