said kindly; "and he tells me also that you are
not at all pleased at the news."

"Pleased! I should think not, Mr. Prendergast," she said indignantly. "I
am not going to rob my cousin of what he has always been taught to think
as his inheritance. It is abominable, I call it, and most unnatural."

"But, my dear young lady, it is yours, and not his. I do not wish to
discuss whether the arrangement was altogether a wise one, but I think
that so far it has turned out well for all parties. Your estate has
profited greatly by the management of your uncle, the tenants and all
connected with it have benefited greatly, he himself has had active
employment afforded him, of which he was fond. Your cousin has,
I believe, enjoyed the advantages of the position, and has become
acquainted with the best people in this part of the country, and will
now obtain the benefit of something like 15,000 pounds--a comfortable
little sum, especially as he inherits, I believe, his father's property
in Sussex. You yourself will have obtained what I cannot but consider
the advantage of having been brought up without knowing that you were an
heiress, and therefore without being spoiled, which is, in my opinion,
the case with many young ladies in such a condition; therefore I cannot
but think that, if unwise in its conception, the matter has so far
worked out well. I am bound to say that Mr. Mark Thorndyke has been
speaking to me very handsomely on the subject, and that he appears in no
way disappointed at finding that you are the heiress of the estate, and
is really concerned only at your unwillingness to accept the situation."

"I wanted to know, Mr. Prendergast," she said, but in a tone that showed
she was convinced by his manner that her request would be refused, "if
you could arrange so that things would not be disturbed, and he should
come into possession as his father's heir in the natural way."

"But you see he is not his father's heir, Miss Thorndyke. His father
only had the use, as we call it, of the property until you came of age,
or marriage; it was not necessary for it to come to you on your coming
of age, but only, as your father explained to me, in the event of your
marriage; that is to say, it was not to become public that you were
entitled to the estate until your marriage. If you married before you
were twenty-one the property was then to come to you. If you did not
your were to be informed of the circumstances or not, as Mr. Tho