tline was quite sufficient. They could
scarcely accustom themselves to believe it for a moment or two.

"To bring me up as the heir, and then disinherit me!" gasped Everard.

"Why, everybody called you 'the young squire'!" exclaimed Lilias. "It's
unthinkable!"

"Unthinkable or not, I'm afraid it's true," said Everard bitterly.
"Bowden wouldn't have told me otherwise. I suppose he drew up the will,
so he knows what's in it. Nice position to be in, isn't it? Turned out
to make room for some other chap!"

"Who is this child of Uncle Tristram's? We've never heard of him."

"It'll be the kid who is in that photo, I suppose--Leslie. He looked
about a year old in the portrait, and it's thirteen years since Uncle
Tristram died, so he's probably fourteen or so now. To think of a kid of
fourteen taking _my_ place here! It's monstrous!"

"Oh, Everard, what _shall_ we do?"

"I don't know. I'm going out to think it over. Don't say a word about it
to anybody yet. Promise me you won't!"

Everard seized his cap and waterproof, and plunged out-of-doors into the
rain. He did not return till dinner-time. If he was silent and
preoccupied at that meal, both Cousin Clare and Dulcie set it down as
natural to his new sense of responsibility. Lilias looked at him
uneasily. There was a hardness in his face which she had never seen
there before. She longed to catch him alone and question him, but after
dinner he purposely avoided her, and left a message that he had gone to
the stables. She would have liked to confide in Cousin Clare, but she
had given her promise to keep the secret, and even Dulcie must not share
it yet. The girls slept in separate rooms at home, so that when Lilias
had said good night to the family she was alone. She went to bed, as a
matter of course, but tossed about with throbbing heart and whirling
brain. Mr. Bowden's information had effectually banished sleep. In about
an hour, when the house was absolutely quiet, came a soft tap at her
door. She jumped up hastily, threw on her dressing-gown, and opened it.
Everard stood in the passage outside.

"May I come in? I want to speak to you, Sissy! It's important," he
whispered.

"I thought you had gone to bed," said Lilias, admitting him, and
dragging forward two basket chairs. "What is it, Everard? Don't look
like that--you frighten me!"

Her brother had seated himself wearily, and buried his head in his
hands. He raised two haggard eyes at her words.

"I've come