rs. Gallilee was a
Liberal in politics; never had her principles been tried, as they
were tried when she heard those words. Teresa wrung Ovid's hand with
tremulous energy--still intent on reading his character in his face. He
asked her, smiling, what she saw to interest her. "A good man, I hope,"
she answered, sternly. Carmina and Ovid were amused. Teresa rebuked
them, as if they had been children. "Laugh at some fitter time," she
said, "not now."

Descending the stairs, Mrs. Gallilee and Ovid met the footman. "Mr. Mool
is in the library, ma'am," the man said.

"Have you anything to do, Ovid, for the next half-hour?" his mother
asked.

"Do you wish me to see Mr. Mool? If it's law-business, I am afraid I
shall not be of much use."

"The lawyer is here by appointment, with a copy of your late uncle's
Will," Mrs. Gallilee answered. "You may have some interest in it. I
think you ought to hear it read."

Ovid showed no inclination to adopt this proposal. He asked an idle
question. "I heard of their finding the Will--are there any romantic
circumstances?"

Mrs. Gallilee surveyed her son with an expression of good-humoured
contempt. "What a boy you are, in some things! Have you been reading a
novel lately? My dear, when the people in Italy made up their minds, at
last, to have the furniture in your uncle's room taken to pieces, they
found the Will. It had slipped behind a drawer, in a rotten old cabinet,
full of useless papers. Nothing romantic (thank God!), and nothing
(as Mr. Mool's letter tells me) that can lead to misunderstandings or
disputes."

Ovid's indifference was not to be conquered. He left it to his mother to
send him word if he had a legacy "I am not as much interested in it as
you are," he explained. "Plenty of money left to you, of course?" He was
evidently thinking all the time of something else.

Mrs. Gallilee stopped in the hall, with an air of downright alarm.

"Your mind is in a dreadful state," she said.

"Have you really forgotten what I told you, only yesterday? The Will
appoints me Carmina's guardian."

He had plainly forgotten it--he started, when his mother recalled the
circumstance. "Curious," he said to himself, "that I was not reminded of
it, when I saw Carmina's rooms prepared for her." His mother, anxiously
looking at him, observed that his face brightened when he spoke of
Carmina. He suddenly changed his mind.

"Make allowances for an overworked man," he said. "You are quite rig