have sometimes questioned
how I should receive any of his heirs if they should turn up some day.
Mind you, you need not have the slightest scruple in holding your own.
It was made over to my grandfather by will, as I have made it sure for
you; but I do think that when you come to think how to dispose of it, the
possibility of the existence of these Charlecotes might be taken into
consideration.'

'Yankee Charlecotes!' she said.

'Never mind; most likely nothing of the kind will ever come in your way,
and they have not the slightest claim on you. I only threw it out,
because I thought it right just to speak of it.'

After this commencement, Humfrey, on this and the ensuing days, made it
his business to make his cousin acquainted with the details of the
management of the estate. He took such pleasure in doing so, and was so
anxious she should comprehend, that she was forced to give her whole
attention; and, putting all else aside, was tranquilly happy in thus
gratifying him. Those orderly ranges of conscientious accounts were no
small testimony to the steady, earnest manner in which Humfrey had set
himself to his duty from his early youth, and to a degree they were his
honest pride too--he liked to show how good years had made up for bad
years, and there was a tenderness in the way he patted their red leather
backs to make them even on their shelves, as if they had been good
friends to him. No, they must not run into confusion.

The farms and the cottages--the friendly terms of his intercourse, and
his large-handed but well-judging almsgiving--all revealed to her more of
his solid worth; and the simplicity that regarded all as the merest duty
touched her more than all. Many a time did she think of the royal
Norwegian brothers, one of whom went to tie a knot in the willows on the
banks of the Jordan, while the other remained at home to be the blessing
of his people, and from her broken idol wanderer she turned to worship
her steadfast worker at home, as far as his humility and homeliness made
it possible, and valued each hour with him as if each moment were of
diamond price. And he was so calmly happy, that there was no grieving in
his presence. It had been a serene life of simple fulfilment of duty,
going ever higher, and branching wider, as a good man's standard
gradually rises the longer he lives; the one great disappointment had
been borne without sourness or repining, and the affections, deprived of
the hom