r fought against it, he
could not resist the dying prayer of my uncle."

He then related the whole circumstances under which the girl had been
brought up as Millicent Conyers, instead of Millicent Conyers Thorndyke,
and how the estate had been left by Colonel Thorndyke's will to his
brother until such time as Millicent should come of age, or marry,
and how he had ordered that when that event took place the rest of his
property in money and jewels was to be divided equally between Mark and
herself.

"It must not be, Mark," she said firmly. "You must take the estate, and
we can divide the rest between us. What is the rest?"

"To begin with," Mark said cheerfully, "there are 25,000 pounds,
the accumulations of the rents of the estate after the death of my
grandfather up to the time when the Colonel returned from India; and
there are, besides, a few thousands, though I don't exactly know how
many, that my father paid over to the solicitors as the surplus of the
rents of the estates after paying all expenses of keeping up this house.
He very properly considered that although he had accepted the situation
at your father's earnest wish, he ought not to make money by doing so.
If we put it down at 30,000 pounds altogether, you see there is 15,000
pounds for each of us. A very nice sum for a young man to start life
with, especially as I shall have my father's estate near Hastings,
which brings in 500 pounds a year; and as the rents of this have been
accumulating for the last ten years, my share will be raised from 15,000
pounds to 20,000 pounds. Besides this, there is the main bulk of the
Colonel's fortune made in India. That seems to be worth about 100,000
pounds but I must own that the chance of getting it seems very small."

"How is that, Mark?"

Mark told her the whole story.

"I mean to make it my business to follow the matter up," he said. "I
think that the chance of ever finding it is very small. Still, it will
give me an object to begin life with."

"Oh, I hope that you will never find it!" she exclaimed. "From what you
say it will be a terrible danger if you do get it."

Mark smiled.

"I hardly think so, Millicent. I cannot believe that people would be
following up this thing for over fifteen years, for it was many years
before the Colonel came home that he got possession of these diamonds.
Even Hindoos would, I think, have got sick of such a hopeless affair
long before this; but as they may ever since your f