cursed George would not have got my birthright. My
little daughter, indeed! don't enumerate her among my earthly
blessings."

"It is rather sad to hear you talk like that of your child; but, at
any rate, you are not left in want. You have one of the finest old
places in the county, and a thousand a year, which to most men would
be riches."

"And which to me," answered Philip, "is beggary. I should have had
six, and I have got one. But look you here, Fraser, I swear before
God----"

"Hush! I cannot listen to such talk."

"Well, then, before anything you like, that, while I live, I will
never rest one single moment until I get my own back again. It may
seem impossible, but I will find a way. For instance," he added, as a
thought struck him, "strangely enough, the will does not forbid me to
buy the lands back. If I can get them no other way, I will buy them--
do you hear?--I will buy them. I _must_ have them again before I die."

"How will you get the money?"

"The money--I will save it, make it, steal it, get it somehow. Oh! do
not be afraid; I will get the money. It will take a few years, but I
will get it somehow. It is not the want of a few thousands that will
stop a determined man."

"And suppose your cousin won't sell?"

"I will find a way to make him sell--some bribe, something. There,
there," and his enthusiasm and eagerness vanished in a moment, and the
broken look came back upon his face. "It's all nonsense; I am talking
impossibilities--a little weak in my mind, I suppose. Forget it,
there's a good fellow; say nothing about it. And so you buried them?
Ah, me! ah, me! And George did chief mourner. I suppose he blubbered
freely; he always could blubber freely when he liked. I remember how
he used to take folks in as a lad, and then laugh at them; that's why
they called him 'Crocodile' at school. Well, he's my master now, and
I'm his very humble servant; perhaps one day it will be the other way
up again. What, must you go? If you knew how fearfully lonely I am,
you would not go. My nerves have quite gone, and I fancy all sorts of
things. I can think of nothing but those two graves out there in the
dark. Have they sodded them over? Tell them to sod them over. It was
kind of you to come and see me. You mustn't pay any attention to my
talk; I am not quite myself. Good night."

Mr. Fraser was an extremely unsuspicious man, but somehow, as he
picked his way to the vicarage to eat his solitary chop, he felt a