ecessary. I therefore invite
you to be my guests at the Court during that period."

Again came the involuntary, simultaneous start of surprise, and Jack
Melland cried hastily--

"It is impossible! I am obliged to you, sir; but it is quite
impossible, so far as I am concerned. My business--"

"My--my mother!" cried Ruth. "We could not leave her so long; she needs
our help--"

Mr Farrell interrupted with upraised hand.

"We will defer objections, if you please! I am prepared to meet and
answer them, later on. For the present I ask you to think quietly over
the prospect which lies before you, and to consider how far such
obstacles as you have mentioned should be allowed to stand in the way.
Surely the object is worth some temporary inconvenience or loss. This
house, and all that it contains, with various properties bringing in an
income of over ten thousand a year, will in due course become the
property of one of your number--of the one who best fulfils a certain
condition which I consider essential."

"And the condition--the condition?" queried Mollie eagerly.

Mr Farrell looked at her in silence, while a grim smile passed over his
features.

"That," he said slowly--"that, my dear Miss Mary,--will be discovered,
with other things,--when you hear my will read aloud on the day of my
funeral?"

CHAPTER EIGHT.

SPECULATIONS.

"Well!" exclaimed Ruth, sinking back in armchair number one, at the
right of the bedroom fireplace.

"Well!" exclaimed Mollie, sinking back in armchair number two, facing
her sister. "Likewise, good sooth! By my halidom! Gadzooks! Of a
surety these are great happenings, fair sis!"

"Don't be so tiresome, Mollie! You make a joke out of everything. I
want to talk over the position seriously."

"So do I--just dying to. Go on! Where shall we begin?"

"With the time, of course. Three months! I never dreamt of more than a
fortnight, at most. Do you think we can possibly be spared?"

"I don't think at all--I know! If it was three years, with such an
interest at stake, the poor little mother would jump at it. Three
months soon pass, and there will be two people less to feed and wait
upon, and a room less to keep in order. Every little tells when people
are as hard up as we are, and with the savings mother will be able to
pay Miss Carter to help with the mending. It will be good for Trix,
too. The more you depend upon Trix the more she rises to the occasion.
I have