The lawyer appeared doubtful.

"I am afraid," he said, "you will be very disappointed in the condition
of the estate, Sir Everard. As I have repeatedly told you in our
correspondence, the rent roll, after deducting your settlement upon Lady
Dominey, has at no time reached the interest on the mortgages, and we
have had to make up the difference and send you your allowance out of
the proceeds of the outlying timber."

"That is a pity," Dominey replied, with a frown. "I ought, perhaps,
to have taken you more into my confidence. By the by," he added,
"when--er--about when did you receive my last letter?"

"Your last letter?" Mr. Mangan repeated. "We have not had the privilege
of hearing from you, Sir Everard, for over four years. The only
intimation we had that our payments had reached you was the exceedingly
prompt debit of the South African bank."

"I have certainly been to blame," this unexpected visitor confessed. "On
the other hand, I have been very much absorbed. If you haven't happened
to hear any South African gossip lately, Mangan, I suppose it will be a
surprise to you to hear that I have been making a good deal of money."

"Making money?" the lawyer gasped. "You making money, Sir Everard?"

"I thought you'd be surprised," Dominey observed coolly. "However,
that's neither here nor there. The business object of my visit to you
this morning is to ask you to make arrangements as quickly as possible
for paying off the mortgages on the Dominey estates."

Mr. Mangan was a lawyer of the new-fashioned school,--Harrow and
Cambridge, the Bath Club, racquets and fives, rather than gold and
lawn tennis. Instead of saying "God bless my soul!" he exclaimed "Great
Scott!" dropped a very modern-looking eyeglass from his left eye, and
leaned back in his chair with his hands in his pockets.

"I have had three or four years of good luck," his client continued. "I
have made money in gold mines, in diamond mines and in land. I am
afraid that if I had stayed out another year, I should have descended
altogether to the commonplace and come back a millionaire."

"My heartiest congratulations!" Mr. Mangan found breath to murmur.
"You'll forgive my being so astonished, but you are the first Dominey
I ever knew who has ever made a penny of money in any sort of way, and
from what I remember of you in England--I'm sure you'll forgive my being
so frank--I should never have expected you to have even attempted such a
thing."

Dominey s