The House of Mammon by Fred M. White

It takes a good deal to alarm certain people, and Sairson was one of them. He did not suffer from any terrors of imagination, for it was a quality in which he was utterly lacking. He was puzzled and amazed and suspicious and anxious to get even with things, but he was not easily frightened.

Meanwhile, many matters called for immediate attention. He could not go to town, but there was much he could "handle" at the Grange. He was looking forward to the time when he should have the people in these parts under his thumb, when he could compel them, not only to recognise his family, but, as it were, to bow down before them. It never occurred to him that if he had from the first kept himself in the background his wife might have done all this for him. But it was always his way to believe he could do everything far better than anybody else. Therefore, as soon as he found himself able to attend to business again, he wrote to Lady Laurisdale saying that he proposed to call and see her.