two in the
morning
He contrived , however , to devote , for the first year or two , much more of his time to his interests at Screwstown than to the affairs of his country , and succeeded in baffling the over-competition to which he had been subjected by taking the competitor into partnership . Having thus secured a monopoly at Screwstown , Dick , of course , returned with great ardour to his former enlightened opinions in favour of free trade . He remained some years in parliament ; and though far too shrewd to venture out of his depth as an orator , distinguished himself so much by his exposure of `` humbug '' on an important Committee , that he acquired a very high reputation as a man of business , and gradually became so in request amongst all the members who moved for `` Select Committees , '' that he rose into consequence ; and Mrs. Avenel , courted for his sake , more than her own , obtained the wish of her heart , and was received as an acknowledged / habituee / into the circles of fashion . Amidst these circles , however , Dick found that his home entirely vanished ; and when he came home from the House of Commons , tired to death , at two in the morning , disgusted at always hearing that Mrs. Avenel was not yet returned from some fine lady 's ball , he formed a sudden resolution of cutting Parliament , Fashion , and London altogether ; withdrew his capital , now very large , from his business ; bought the remaining estates of Squire Thornhill ; and his chief object of ambition is in endeavouring to coax or bully out of their holdings all the small freeholders round , who had subdivided amongst them , into poles and furlongs , the fated inheritance of Randal Leslie . An excellent justice of the peace , though more severe than your old family proprietors generally are ; a spirited landlord , as to encouraging and making , at a proper percentage , all permanent improvements on the soil , but formidable to meet if the rent be not paid to the day , or the least breach of covenant be heedlessly incurred on a farm that he could let for more money ; employing a great many hands in productive labour , but exacting rigorously from all the utmost degree of work at the smallest rate of wages which competition and the poor-rate permit ; the young and robust in his neighbourhood never stinted in work , and the aged and infirm , as lumber worn out , stowed away in the workhouse , -- Richard Avenel holds himself an example to the old race of landlords ; and , taken altogether , he is no very bad specimen of the rural civilizers whom the application of spirit and capital raise up in the new . From the wrecks of Egerton 's fortune , Harley , with the aid of his father 's experience in business , could not succeed in saving , for the statesman 's sole child and heir , more than a few thousand pounds ; and but for the bonds and bills which , when meditating revenge , he had bought from Levy , and afterwards thrown into the fire -- paying dear for that detestable whistle -- even this surplus would not have been forthcoming . Harley privately paid out of his own fortune the L5 ,000 Egerton had bequeathed to Leslie ; perhaps not sorry , now that the stern duty of exposing the false wiles of the schemer was fulfilled , to afford some compensation even to the victim who had so richly deserved his fate ; and pleased , though mournfully , to comply with the solemn request of the friend whose offence was forgotten in the remorseful memory of his own projects of revenge .