48294    And the messenger of good fortune was none other than Mr Frankland, who was standing, grey-whiskered and red-faced, outside the gate of his garden, which opened on to the high road along which I travelled.

48295    'Good-day, Dr Watson,' cried he, with unwonted good humour, 'you must really give your horses a rest, and come in to have a glass of wine and to congratulate me.'

48296    My feelings towards him were far from being friendly after what I had heard of his treatment of his daughter, but I was anxious to send Perkins and the wagonette home, and the opportunity was a good one.

48297    I alighted and sent a message to Sir Henry that I should walk over in time for dinner.

48298    Then I followed Frankland into his dining-room.

48299    'It is a great day for me, sir - one of the red-letter days of my life,' he cried, with many chuckles.

48300    'I have brought off a double event.

48301    I mean to teach them in these parts that law is law, and that there is a man here who does not fear to invoke it.

48302    I have established a right of way through the centre of old Middleton's park, slap across it, sir, within a hundred yards of his own front door.

48303    What do you think of that?

48304    We'll teach these magnates that they cannot ride rough-shod over the rights of the commoners, confound them!

48305    And I've closed the wood where the Fernworthy folk used to picnic.

48306    These infernal people seem to think that there are no rights of property, and that they can swarm where they like with their papers and their bottles.

48307    Both cases decided, Dr Watson, and both in my favour.

48308    I haven't had such a day since I had Sir John Morland for trespass, because he shot in his own warren.'