and claim it.
Mr. Gillat waited outside, pacing up and down the street, striving so
hard to look casual that he aroused the suspicions of a not too acute
policeman. The official was reassured, however, when Julia came out of
the office and carried Johnny away to hear about the legacy.

"It is more than I thought," she said, before they were half down the
street. "Fifty pounds a year, a small house--not much more than a
cottage--and a garden and field; that's about what it comes to. The
house is not worth much; it is in an unget-at-able part of Norfolk, in
the sandy district towards the sea--the man spoke as if I knew where
that was, but I don't--and the garden and field are not fertile. I
don't suppose one could let the place, but one could live in it, if
one wanted to."

"Yes, yes," Johnny said, "of course; you will have your own estate to
retire to; quite an heiress--your mother will be pleased."

Julia could well imagine what skilful use her mother could make of the
legacy; it would figure beautifully in conversation; no doubt Johnny
was really thinking of this also, though he did not know it, for
actually the thing would not commend itself to Mrs. Polkington so
highly as a lump sum of money would have done.

"Why do you think Great-aunt Jane let it to me?" Julia asked. "Because
I went out to work! It seems that father and we three girls are the
nearest relations she had, and though we knew nothing about her, she
made inquiries about us from time to time. When she heard I had gone
abroad as companion or lady-help, she said she should leave all she
had to me because I was the only one who even tried to do any honest
work. You know that is not really strictly fair, because I did not
altogether go with the idea of doing honest work; although, certainly,
when I got there I did it."

Johnny did not quite follow this last, but it did not matter, the only
thing that concerned him--or Julia much, either--was the fact that she
was the possessor of L50 a year, a cottage, a garden, and a field.
Johnny revelled in the idea and talked of what she was going to do
right up to the time that he saw her into the train at Paddington. The
only thing that put an end to his talking was the guard requesting him
to stand away from the carriage door and Julia admonished him to leave
go of the handle before the engine started. Julia herself did not talk
so much of what she would do because she did not know; she felt, until
she got home