egacies to his daughters, and their husbands, and their
children, and all his favourite friends, Lord Grandison left the whole
of his property to his grand-daughter Katherine, the only remaining
child of his son, who had died early in life, and the sister of the
lately deceased Augustus.

What was to be done now? His mother's sanguine mind, for Lady Armine
broke to him the fatal intelligence, already seemed to anticipate
the only remedy for this 'unjust will.' It was a remedy delicately
intimated, but the intention fell upon a fine and ready ear. Yes! he
must marry; he must marry his cousin; he must marry Katherine Grandison.
Ferdinand looked around him at his magnificent rooms; the damask
hangings of Tunis, the tall mirrors from Marseilles, the inlaid tables,
the marble statues, and the alabaster vases that he had purchased at
Florence and at Rome, and the delicate mats that he had himself imported
from Algiers. He looked around and he shrugged his shoulders: 'All this
must be paid for,' thought he; 'and, alas! how much more!' And then came
across his mind a recollection of his father and his cares, and innocent
Armine, and dear Glastonbury, and his sacrifice. Ferdinand shook his
head and sighed.

'How have I repaid them,' thought he. 'Thank God, they know nothing.
Thank God, they have only to bear their own disappointments and their
own privations; but it is in vain to moralise. The future, not the
past, must be my motto. To retreat is impossible; I may yet advance and
conquer. Katherine Grandison: only think of my little cousin Kate for
a wife! They say that it is not the easiest task in the world to fan
a lively flame in the bosom of a cousin. The love of cousins is
proverbially not of a very romantic character. 'Tis well I have not
seen her much in my life, and very little of late. Familiarity breeds
contempt, they say. Will she dare to despise me?' He glanced at the
mirror. The inspection was not unsatisfactory. Plunged in profound
meditation, he paced the room.

CHAPTER II.

_In Which Captain Armine Achieves with Rapidity a Result
Which Always Requires Great Deliberation_.

It so happened that the regiment in which Captain Armine had the honour
of commanding a company was at this time under orders of immediate
recall to England; and within a month of his receipt of the fatal
intelligence of his being, as he styled it, disinherited, he was on his
way to his native land, This speedy departure