fered, and my treatment of him lay like a weight upon
me. And how was I to repay them? They needed the money I had cost them,
of that I was sure. After the sums I had expended to aid the commodore
with the 'Ranger' and the 'Bon homme Richard', I had scarce a farthing
to my name. With such leaden reflections was I occupied when I heard
Mrs. Manners speaking to me.

"Richard, I have some news for you which the doctor thinks you can bear
to-day. Mr. Dulany, who is exiled like the rest of us, brought them. It
is a great happiness to be able to tell you, my dear, that you are now
the master of Carvel Hall, and like to stay so."

The tears stole into her eyes as she spoke. And the enormity of those
tidings, coming as they did on the top of my dejection, benumbed me. All
they meant was yet far away from my grasp, but the one supreme result
that was first up to me brought me near to fainting in my weakness.

"I would not raise your hopes unduly, Richard," the good lady was
saying, "but the best informed here seem to think that England cannot
push the war much farther. If the Colonies win, you are secure in your
title."

"But how is it come about, Mrs. Manners?" I demanded, with my first
breath.

"You doubtless have heard that before the Declaration was signed at
Philadelphia your Uncle Grafton went to the committee at Annapolis and
contributed to the patriot cause, and took very promptly the oath of the
Associated Freemen of Maryland, thus forsaking the loyalist party--"

"Yes, yes," I interrupted, "I heard of it when I was on the Cabot. He
thought his property in danger."

"Just so," said Mrs. Manners, laughing; "he became the best and most
exemplary of patriots, even as he had been the best of Tories. He sent
wheat and money to the army, and went about bemoaning that his only son
fought under the English flag. But very little fighting has Philip done,
my dear. Well, when the big British fleet sailed up the bay in '77,
your precious uncle made the first false step in his long career of
rascality. He began to correspond with the British at Philadelphia, and
one of his letters was captured near the Head of Elk. A squad was sent
to the Kent estate, where he had been living, to arrest him, but he made
his escape to New York. And his lands were at once confiscated by the
state."

"'Then they belong to the state," I said, with misgiving.

"Not so fast, Richard. At the last session of the Maryland Legislature a
bill was in