e children, who had almost been born
into his arms; nor even with the very walls, and trees, and grassy
knolls with which he was so dearly intimate. He could not proclaim
himself an enemy to Greshamsbury; and yet he felt that fealty to Mary
required of him that, for the present, he should put on an enemy's
guise.

"If you want me, Lady Arabella, and send for me, I will come to you;
otherwise I will, if you please, share the sentence which has been
passed on Mary. I will now wish you good morning." And then bowing
low to her, he left the room and the house, and sauntered slowly away
to his own home.

What was he to say to Mary? He walked very slowly down the
Greshamsbury avenue, with his hands clasped behind his back, thinking
over the whole matter; thinking of it, or rather trying to think
of it. When a man's heart is warmly concerned in any matter, it
is almost useless for him to endeavour to think of it. Instead of
thinking, he gives play to his feelings, and feeds his passion by
indulging it. "Allurements!" he said to himself, repeating Lady
Arabella's words. "A girl circumstanced like my niece! How utterly
incapable is such a woman as that to understand the mind, and heart,
and soul of such a one as Mary Thorne!" And then his thoughts
recurred to Frank. "It has been ill done of him; ill done of him:
young as he is, he should have had feeling enough to have spared me
this. A thoughtless word has been spoken which will now make her
miserable!" And then, as he walked on, he could not divest his mind
of the remembrance of what had passed between him and Sir Roger.
What, if after all, Mary should become the heiress to all that money?
What, if she should become, in fact, the owner of Greshamsbury? for,
indeed it seemed too possible that Sir Roger's heir would be the
owner of Greshamsbury.

The idea was one which he disliked to entertain, but it would recur
to him again and again. It might be, that a marriage between his
niece and the nominal heir to the estate might be of all the matches
the best for young Gresham to make. How sweet would be the revenge,
how glorious the retaliation on Lady Arabella, if, after what had
now been said, it should come to pass that all the difficulties of
Greshamsbury should be made smooth by Mary's love, and Mary's hand!
It was a dangerous subject on which to ponder; and, as he sauntered
down the road, the doctor did his best to banish it from his
mind,--not altogether successfully.