r household matters, and Mrs. Aylmer would in all probability
be alone in her private sitting-room.

He tapped at her door between eleven and twelve o'clock, and at her
summons entered and closed it behind him.

"Ah, Maurice, that is good," said the lady; "come and sit near me. I am
quite prepared to have a long chat with you."

"And I want to have a long talk with you, Mrs. Aylmer," was his answer.
He drew a chair forward, and sat where he could see right out over the
landscape.

"It is a beautiful day," said the lady.

"Yes," he replied.

"Maurice," she said, after a pause, "you must know that I am very much
attached to you."

"You have always been extremely good to me," he answered.

"I am attached to you; it is easy to be good to those one loves. I have
never had a child of my own; you stand to me in the place of a son."

"But in reality I am not related to you," he answered.

She frowned slightly.

"There are relations of the heart," she said then. "You have touched my
heart. There is nothing I would not do for you."

Again he said: "You are very kind."

She was silent for half a minute, then she proceeded: "You are my heir."

He fidgeted.

"Do not speak until I have finished. I do not like to be interrupted.
You are my heir, and I mean to settle upon you immediately one thousand
pounds a year for your own expenses. You can do what you please with
that money."

"It is a great deal too much," he said.

"It is not; it is what you ought to have. You can give some of it to
your mother--not a great deal, but a little--and the rest you can spend
on yourself, or you can hoard it, just as you like."

"I shall not hoard it," he answered, and his face flushed.

"It will be yours from next month. I am expecting my lawyer, Mr.
Wiltshire, to call here this afternoon. Several matters have to be
arranged. Maurice, you will live with me for the present; that is, until
you marry."

"I do not mean to marry," he answered.

"All young men say that," she replied. "You will marry as others do.
You will fall in love and you will marry. I shall be very glad indeed to
welcome your wife. She shall have the best and most affectionate welcome
from me, and I will treat her as though she were my daughter: just as I
treat you, Maurice, as though you were my real son."

"But I cannot forget that I am not your son," he answered. "Mrs. Aylmer,
there is something I must say."

His words disturbed her for a moment; she d