Michael had the agent’s health in trust, and when Lancaster stood up to answer, the faces grew interested, for his was the only serious speech of the evening. He looked at Wiggie first, though, firmly taking from him the pipe with which he was meekly struggling. He jerked his head towards the door. “This is going to be dull, so clear off out for a breath of fresh air, and stop putting chimneys down that precious throat of yours. It’s going to be dull, I tell you, and I ought to know! You’re not missing anything. As for Miss Shaw, she can read it in the papers, if she wants!” That sent the faithful Wiggie flying, as he expected, to cool his aching head in the drawing-in afternoon; and with the tail of his eye on Stubbs and his behaviour, Lancaster got to work. His speech was technical, concentrated, rigidly pinned down to the main interest, but dull it was not, so clearly did the plain words round and emphasise each situation, salting hard facts with the short, dry wit that stimulates the Northerner like his own first frosts. Drifting outside to an uncurtained window, Wiggie was fascinated by the picture within. Through the mist of smoke he saw the faces at the table turned with the stillness of complete attention to the forceful figure at the end. Lancaster was at his best when speaking. The whole man braced and strengthened, and the almost dour look, so often seen in those who come early into big responsibilities, relaxed as some apt finish sent a slow ripple round the ring, setting its final seal on his own mouth. There came to Wigmore, of the town, a sense of the wide qualifications that go to the making of the ideal steward. A well-known member of this “easy” profession has said that the land agent must be “a keen judge of character, of a genial and sympathetic disposition and energetic nature, must know when to be firm, when yielding, the many times when he must lead, the few when he must drive, whom to trust and whom to suspect, what to notice and what to ignore, where to command and where merely to suggest, whom to praise and whom censure. Forethought, vigilance, courtesy, reticence are qualities which will carry him far.... He has duties to perform on behalf of tenants as well as landlord. He is a human buffer between his employer and the farmers, and must shield the former from annoyance, and uphold the just claims of the latter, even to the sacrifice of his own popularity. He must be as reticent as the lawyer, as upright as the parson, as firm as the policeman. He must be well informed on every subject, whether it be Bradshaw or the debenture stocks of a company--the pedigree of a cow or that of a peer; the price of a Scotch moor, or the vintage of a claret.”