h vast pleasure.
I have therefore instructed my solicitor to prepare a new will. By this
he will settle my property in Warwickshire, and my town house, upon my
grandson; but my other house property, and a portion of my money in
stocks and shares, which has been accumulating for many years, will be
left to you, the value of the legacy being, I calculate, about one-half
of that of the property left to my grandson. Thus you will be in nearly
the same position you would have occupied had not your cousin Frank
forfeited, by his disgraceful conduct, his place in my affections."

Whatever may have been the feelings of Fred Barkley when he received
this communication, he wrote a graceful letter of congratulation to his
uncle, expressing his pleasure at the discovery of his long-lost
grandson, and with many thanks for his kind intention on his own behalf.
His anger and disappointment were so great that he did not return to
town until the day before he was going up to Cambridge--having left
Westminster at the end of the preceding term--for he did not feel
himself equal, before that time, to continue to play his part, and to
express personally the sentiments which he had written. What rendered
his disappointment even more bitter was the thought that, indirectly, it
was Frank who had dealt him the blow, for Captain Bayley had mentioned
in his letter that it was through the boy whom his cousin had
recommended as an assistant to the footman that the discovery had been
made.

The visit that he paid at Eaton Square was a short one. To his relief
Alice was not present, for he was certain that she would have watched
him with malicious pleasure. But there had been a passage of arms
between her and her guardian of a more serious nature than any which had
occurred since she had been under his care, owing to her having
expressed herself with her usual frankness respecting Fred's visit.

Her guardian had resented this warmly, and had rated her so severely as
to what he called her wicked prejudice against Fred, that she had
retired to her room in tears. This defeat of his favourite had not
predisposed Harry to any more favourable opinion of his unknown cousin;
but Fred, relieved from the presence of Alice, acted his part so well,
and infused so genuine a ring into the tone of his congratulations, that
he did much to dissipate the prejudice with which Harry was prepared to
regard him. Alice was quick to observe the impression which Fred had