Instead
of expressing any resentment, he fairly acknowledged that Q - - was
his master at a bargain, and gave him full credit for his address
and cunning, and quite resolved in his own mind to profit by the
lesson he had received.
Now, with all their natural acuteness and habitual dexterity in such
matters, the Canadians have one weak point; they are too ready to
believe that Englishmen are made of money. All that an emigrant has
to do to acquire the reputation of having money, is to seem quite
easy, and free from care or anxiety for the future, and to maintain
a certain degree of reserve in talking of his private affairs. Mr.
B - - perfectly understood how to play his cards with the
land-jobber; and his fat, jolly physiognomy, and rustic, provincial
manners and accent, greatly assisted him in the deception.
Every day Q - - drove him out to look at different farms. B - - talked
carelessly of buying some large "block" of land, that would have
cost him some 3000 or 4000 pounds, providing he could only find
the kind of soil he particularly liked for farming purposes. As he
seemed to be in no hurry in making his selection, Q - - determined
to make him useful, in the meantime, in promoting his views with
respect to others. He therefore puffed Mr. B - - up to everybody as
a Norfolk farmer of large capital, and always appealed to him to
confirm the character he gave of any farm he wished to sell to a new
comer.
