ain; his nephew, my cousin, inherited the estates and title, but
strange to say, I was the nearest of kin. Five years ago my cousin died;
he left no estate, but the title which had been maintained in honor by
my ancestors has descended to me, and when you marry Amy you will marry
a lord's daughter."

Desmond meditated a moment, and then said:

"I am satisfied to marry the daughter of plain Mr. Brooks."

"Thank you, my son, but I shall clear the estate, and for a season at
least dwell in the ancient halls of my ancestors. I will remain to
witness your marriage and shall then go home to England. And now comes
my last revelation: you and Amy are distantly connected; my remote
ancestors were yours also. Your grandfather came down from the younger
line a long time back, but blood as good as any one's flows in your
veins."

"Yes, from my mother."

"I admit it, _from your mother_."

Our readers know what followed. Amy and Desmond were married, and on
the night of the wedding he remarked to his father-in-law:

"This time I took no desperate chance."

"Neither did Amy when she intrusted her future happiness to you," came
the bright and elegant answer.

The whilom wizard tramp did return to England, and it was in the
ancestral halls that Desmond and Amy spent their delightful honeymoon.

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Desperate Chance
by Old Sleuth (Harlan P. Halsey)

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