LESS.]

I waited, breathless.

He was annoyingly dilatory. 'My house and estate of Ashurst Court, in
the County of Gloucester, and my town house at 24 Park Lane North, in
London, together with the residue of all my estate, real or
personal----' and so forth.

I breathed again. At least, I had not been called upon to disinherit
Harold.

'Provided always----' he went on, in the same voice.

I wondered what was coming.

'Provided always that the said Harold Ashurst Tillington does not
marry----leave a blank there, Miss Cayley. I will find out the name of
the young person I desire to exclude, and fill it in afterward. I don't
recollect it at this moment, but Higginson, no doubt, will be able to
supply the deficiency. In fact, I don't think I ever heard it; though
Higginson has told me all about the woman.'

'Higginson?' I inquired. 'Is he here?'

'Oh, dear, yes. You heard of him, I suppose, from Georgina. Georgina is
prejudiced. He has come back to me, I am glad to say. An excellent
servant, Higginson, though a trifle too omniscient. All men are equal in
the eyes of their Maker, of course; but we must have due subordination.
A courier ought not to be better informed than his master--or ought at
least to conceal the fact dexterously. Well, Higginson knows this young
person's name; my sister wrote to me about her disgraceful conduct when
she first went to Schlangenbad. An adventuress, it seems; an
adventuress; quite a shocking creature. Foisted herself upon Lady
Georgina in Kensington Gardens--unintroduced, if you can believe such a
thing--with the most astonishing effrontery; and Georgina, who will
forgive anything on earth, for the sake of what she calls
originality--another name for impudence, as I am sure you must
know--took the young woman with her as her maid to Germany. There, this
minx tried to set her cap at my nephew Harold, who can be caught at once
by a pretty face; and Harold was bowled over--almost got engaged to her.
Georgina took a fancy to the girl later, having a taste for dubious
people (I cannot say I approve of Georgina's friends), and wrote again
to say her first suspicions were unfounded: the young woman was in
reality a paragon of virtue. But _I_ know better than that. Georgina has
no judgment. I regret to be obliged to confess it, but cleverness, I
fear, is the only thing in the world my excellent sister cares for. The
hussy, it seems, was certainly clever. Higginson has told me about her.