text:  Yet he is firm you see and persists in disappointing his creditors and depriving himself of the comforts of life merely in order that he may die as his fathers did before him--the lord of Lexley Hall!" "I don't wonder!" said I with the dawning sentiments of a landed proprietor--"'Tis a splendid old house even in its present state of degradation; and by Jove! I honour his pertinacity