Tomorrow's Ghost
“Now, of course, the opulent rhododendron tangles at its gateway and the manicured quarter-mile of gravel drive between trimly-fenced horse paddocks amounted to no more than a gloss on the file, computed at compound interest over the years since Captain Butler, sole beneficiary (no relative) of General Sir Henry Chesney, had capitalised on his inheritance.
The mathematics of the scene confirmed her previous estimate: Chesney and Rawle’s had been an old-established, deeply-entrenched and almo...st disgracefully prosperous business, which had been sold when the pound was still something to conjure with (which was when little Frances Warren had been not long out of her push-chair). Even allowing for the depredations of a quarter of a century’s taxation and inflation, and throwing in a full-time gardener and maybe a stableboy with nannie and the school fees of the last ten years, and adding them all to Brookside House, which had been purchased when the Colonel—then the Major—had finally quit his regiment… subtracting all this (and the running costs of Madeleine Francoise de Latour d’Auray Boucard) from the Chesney-Butler inheritance and there would hardly be a scratch in it, much less a dent.MoreLess
The mathematics of the scene confirmed her previous estimate: Chesney and Rawle’s had been an old-established, deeply-entrenched and almo...st disgracefully prosperous business, which had been sold when the pound was still something to conjure with (which was when little Frances Warren had been not long out of her push-chair). Even allowing for the depredations of a quarter of a century’s taxation and inflation, and throwing in a full-time gardener and maybe a stableboy with nannie and the school fees of the last ten years, and adding them all to Brookside House, which had been purchased when the Colonel—then the Major—had finally quit his regiment… subtracting all this (and the running costs of Madeleine Francoise de Latour d’Auray Boucard) from the Chesney-Butler inheritance and there would hardly be a scratch in it, much less a dent.MoreLess
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