t. I can only say
that I accept in love and gratitude what you offer me. The feeling that
I have found a home and a mother, so suddenly and so unexpectedly,
fills me with joy and happiness. I think with sadness of all the good
years I have missed, by a sort of stupid perversity; but I won't regard
that now. I will only thank you once more with all my heart for the
proof of affection which your letter gives me.--Your grateful and
affectionate nephew,

"HOWARD KENNEDY."

The old house had a welcoming air as he passed through it that morning;
it seemed to hold him in its patient embrace, to ask for love. He spent
the morning with Jack, but in a curiously distracted mood.

"What has happened to you?" said Jack at the end of the morning. "You
have not been thinking about what you are doing. You seem like a man
who has been stroking a winning crew. Has the Master been made a Dean,
and have you been elected Master? They say you have a chance."

Howard laughed and said, "You are very sharp, Jack! I have NOT been
attending. Something very unexpected has happened. I mustn't tell you
now, but you will soon know. I have drawn a prize. Now don't pump me!"

"Here's another prize!" said Jack. "You are to lunch with us to-morrow,
and to discuss my future career. There's glory for you! I am not to be
present, and father is scheming to get me invited to luncheon here. If
he fails, I am to take out some sandwiches and to eat them in the
kitchen garden. Maud is to be present, and 'CONFER,' he says, 'though
without a vote'!"

Howard met Mrs. Graves in the drawing-room; she kissed him, and holding
his hand for a moment said, "Thank you for your note, my dear boy.
That's all settled, then! Well, it's a great joy to me, and I get more
than I give by the bargain. It's a shameless bribe, to secure the
company of a charming nephew for a sociable old woman. Some time I
shall want to tell you more about the people here--but I won't bore
you; and let us just get quietly used to it all. One must not be
pompous about money; it is doing it too much honour; and the best of it
is that I have found a son." Howard smiled, kissed the hand which held
his, and said no more.

The Vicar turned up in the afternoon, and apologised to Mrs. Graves for
asking Howard to luncheon on the following day. "The fact is," he said,
"that I am anxious to have the benefit of his advice about Jack's
future. I think we ought to look at things from all sorts of angles,