by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XVII.
Four days later Mark, on his return from dinner, found Philip Cottersitting in his room waiting for him. They had met on the previousevening, and Cotter had expressed his intention of calling upon him thenext day.
"I am here on a matter of business, Thorndyke," the latter said as theyshook hands.
"Of business!" Mark repeated.
"Yes. You might guess for a year, and I don't suppose that you would hitit. It is rather a curious thing. Nearly twenty years ago--"
"I can guess it before you go any further," Mark exclaimed, leaping upfrom the seat that he had just taken. "Your people received a box fromIndia."
"That is so Mark; although how you guessed it I don't know."
"We have been searching for it for years," Mark replied. "Our lawyer,Prendergast, wrote to you about that box; at least, he wrote to youasking if you had any property belonging to Colonel Thorndyke, and yourpeople wrote to say they hadn't."
"Yes, I remember I wrote to him myself. Of course that was before youdid me that great service, and I did not know your name, and we had notthe name on our books. What is in the box?"
"Jewels worth something like fifty thousand pounds."
"By Jove, I congratulate you, old fellow; that is to say, if you havethe handling of it. Well, this is what happened. The box was sent tous by a firm in Calcutta, together with bills for 50,000 pounds. Theinstructions were that the money was to be invested in stock, and thatwe were to manage it and to take 100 pounds a year for so doing. Therest of the interest of the money was to be invested. The box was a verymassive one, and was marked with the letters XYZ. It was very carefullysealed. Our instructions were that the owner of the box and the moneymight present himself at any time."
"And that the proof of his ownership was to be that he was to use theword 'Masulipatam,'" Mark broke in, "and produce a gold coin that would,probably--though of this I am not certain--correspond with the seals."
He got up and went to the cabinet which he had brought up with him fromCrowswood, unlocked it, and produced the piece of paper and the coin.
"Yes, that looks like the seal, Thorndyke. At any rate, it is the samesort of thing. Why on earth didn't you come with it before, and take thethings away?"
"Simply because I did not know where to go to. My uncle was dyingwhen he came home, and told my father about the treasure, but he diedsuddenly, and my father did not know whether it was sent to England orcommitted to someone's charge in India, or buried there. We did the onlything we could, namely, inquired at all the banks and agents here andat all the principal firms in Madras and Calcutta to ask if they had intheir possession any property belonging to the late Colonel Thorndyke."
"You see, we did not know," Cotter went on, "any more than Adam, to whomthe box belonged. Fortunately, the agent sent in his communication asealed letter, on the outside of which was written, 'This is to remainunopened, but if no one before that date presents himself with the tokenand password, it is to be read on the 18th of August, 1789.' That wasyesterday, you know."
"Yes, that was my cousin's eighteenth birthday. We thought if my unclehad left the box in anyone's charge he would probably have given himsome such instructions, for at that time there was hard fighting inIndia, and he might have been killed any day, and would thereforenaturally have made some provisions for preventing the secret dying withhim."
"We did not think of it until this morning early, though we have beenrather curious over it ourselves. When we opened it, inside was anotherletter addressed 'To be delivered to John Thorndyke, Esquire, atCrawley, near Hastings, or at Crowswood, Reigate, or in the event of hisdeath to his executors.'"
"I am one of his executors," Mark said; "Mr. Prendergast, the lawyer,is the other. I think I had better go round to him tomorrow and open theletter there."
"Oh, I should think you might open it at once, Thorndyke. It willprobably only contain instructions, and, at any rate, as you have thecoin and the word, you could come round tomorrow morning and get thechest out if you want it."
"I won't do that," Mark said; "the coffer contains gems worth over50,000 pounds, and I would very much rather it remained in your keepinguntil I decide what to do with it. How large is it?"
"It is a square box, about a foot each way; and it is pretty heavy,probably from the setting of the jewels. Well, anyhow, I am heartilyglad, Thorndyke. I know, of course, that you are well off, still 100,000pounds--for the money has doubled itself since we had it--to say nothingof the jewels, is a nice plum to drop into anyone's mouth."
"Very nice indeed, although only half of it comes to me under my uncle'swill. To tell you the truth, I am more glad that the mystery has beensolved than at getting the money; the affair was a great worry to myfather, and has been so to me. I felt that I ought to search for thetreasure, and yet the probability of finding it seemed so small that Ifelt the thing was hopeless, and that really the only chance was that myuncle would have taken just the course he did, and have fixed some datewhen the treasure should be handed over, if not asked for. I ratherfancied that it would not have been for another three years, for that iswhen my cousin comes of age."
"What cousin do you mean?" Philip Cotter asked. "I did not know you hadone."
"Well, that is at present a secret, Cotter--one of the mysteriesconnected with my uncle's will. For myself, I would tell it in themarket place tomorrow, but she wishes it to be preserved at present; youshall certainly know as soon as anyone. By the way, I have not seenyou at Mrs. Cunningham's for the last week, and you used to be a prettyregular visitor."
"No," the young man said gloomily; "I don't mind telling you that MissConyers refused me a fortnight ago. I never thought that I had muchchance, but I had just a shadow of hope, and that is at an end now."
"Perhaps in the future--" Mark suggested for the sake of sayingsomething.
"No; I said as much as that to her, and she replied that it wouldalways be the same, and I gathered from her manner, although she did notexactly say so, that there was someone else in the case, and yet I havenever met anyone often there."
"Perhaps you are mistaken," Mark said.
"Well, whether or not, there is clearly no hope for me. I am very sorry,but it is no use moping over it. My father and mother like her so much,and they are anxious for me to marry and settle down; altogether, itwould have been just the thing. I do not know whether she has any money,and did not care, for of course I shall have plenty. I shall be a juniorpartner in another six months; my father told me so the other day. Hesaid that at one time he was afraid that I should never come into thehouse, for that it would not have been fair to the others to take sucha reckless fellow in, but that I seemed to have reformed so thoroughlysince that affair that if I continued so for another six months theyshould have no hesitation in giving me a share."
It was too late to go up to Islington that evening. In the morning Markwent with the still unopened letter to the solicitor's. The old lawyercongratulated him most heartily when he told him of the discovery thathe had made.
"I am glad indeed, Mark; not so much for the sake of the money, butbecause I was afraid that that confounded treasure was going to unsettleyour life. When a man once begins treasure hunting it becomes a sort ofcraze, and he can no more give it up than an opium smoker can the useof the drug. Thank goodness, that is over; so the capital amount isdoubled, and you are accordingly worth 70,000 pounds more than you werethis time yesterday--a fine windfall! Now let us see what your unclesays."
He broke the seal. The letter was a short one, and began:
"My DEAR JOHN:
"If you have not, before you receive this, got my treasure, you will getit on the 18th or 19th of August, 17??89. I have made a will which willgive you full instructions what to do with it. I may say, though, that Ihave left it between a little daughter who was born six months ago, andyour son Mark. My own intentions are to stop out here until I get therank of general, and I have taken the measures that I have done in casea bullet or a sharp attack of
fever carries me off suddenly. I hope thatyou will have carried out the provisions of my will, and I hope alsothat I shall have come home and talked the whole matter over with youbefore I go under.
"Your affectionate brother."
"A singular man," Mr. Prendergast said, as he laid the letter down onthe table beside him. "What trouble these crotchety people do give!I suppose you have altogether put aside that folly of his about thejewels?"
"Well, no, I can't say that I have, Mr. Prendergast. Do you know thatI have a fancy--it may only be a fancy, but if so, I cannot shake itoff--that I am watched by Lascars. There was one standing at the cornerof the street as I came up this morning, and again and again I haverun across one. It is not always the same man, nor have I any absolutereasons for believing that they are watching me; still, somehow orother, I do come across them more frequently than seems natural."
"Pooh, nonsense, Mark! I should have thought that you were too sensiblea fellow to have such ridiculous fancies in your head."
"Of course, I should never have thought of such a thing, Mr.Prendergast, if it had not been for what my father told me, that myuncle was desperately in earnest about it, and had an intense convictionthat someone watched his every movement."
"Don't let us talk of such folly any longer," the lawyer said irritably."Now that you have got the money, the best thing you can do is to go atonce and carry out what was the wish both of your father and your uncle,and ask your cousin to marry you; that will put an end to the wholebusiness, and I can tell you that I am positively convinced that theday she gets twenty-one she will renounce the property, and that if yourefuse to take it she will pass it over to some hospital or other. Youcannot do better than prevent her from carrying out such an act of follyas that, and the only way that I can see is by your marrying her. Igathered from what you said when I gave you the same advice at Reigatethat you liked her and should have done it had it not been for hercoming into the estate instead of you. Well, you are now in a positionto ask her to marry you without the possibility of its being supposedthat you are a fortune hunter."
"I will think about it, Mr. Prendergast. Of course this money does makea considerable difference in my position; however, I shall do nothinguntil I have got the jewels off my hands."
"Well, a couple of days will manage that," the lawyer said; "you haveonly got to take the box to a first class jeweler, and get him to valuethe things and make you an offer for the whole of them."
Mark did not care to press the subject, and on leaving went to Cotter'sBank. He was at once shown into his friend's room, and the latter tookhim to his father.
"It is curious, Mr. Thorndyke," the latter said heartily, "that weshould have been keeping your money all this time without having theslightest idea that it belonged to you. We are ready at once to pay itover to your order, for if you pronounce the word you know of, and Ifind that the coin you have corresponds with the seal on the box, thenecessary proof will be given us that you have authority to take itaway. I have had the box brought up this morning, so that we can comparethe seal."
The box was taken out of the strong safe, and it was at once seen thatthe coin corresponded with the seals.
"I will leave it with you for the present, Mr. Cotter; it contains alarge amount of jewels, and until I have decided what to do with them Iwould rather leave them; it would be madness to have 50,000 pounds worthof gems in a London lodging, even for a single night. As to the money,that also had better remain as it is at present invested. As I told yourson--that and the jewels are the joint property of myself and another. Idare say that in a few days half of the money will be transferred tothe name of the other legatee; that can be easily done. I shall getmy lawyer, Mr. Prendergast, to call upon you, Mr. Cotter. I suppose itwould be better that some legal proof that we are entitled to the moneyshould be given."
"I shall be glad to see him and to take his instructions," the bankersaid; "but in point of fact I regard the property as yours; I havenothing to do with wills or other arrangements. I simply receivedthe box and the cash with an order that they should be delivered towhomsoever should come with the word 'Masulipatam' and a coin to matchthe seals. That you have done, and with subsequent dispositions I haveno concern. I shall be happy to keep this box for you as long as youshould think proper; and I have also written out an acknowledgementthat I hold securities of the value, at the closing prices yesterday, of103,000 pounds 16 shillings," and he handed the paper to Mark.
As the latter left the bank he looked up and down the street, andmuttered an angry exclamation as he caught sight of a rough lookingfellow just turning a corner into a side street. The glance was somomentary a one that he could not say whether the man was a coloredseaman; but he certainly thought that he was a Lascar.
"I am going to have trouble about that bracelet," he said to himself,as he hailed a hackney coach and told him to drive to Islington. "I amconvinced that the Colonel was right, and that there are some men overin this country with the fixed purpose of seeing what is done with thosejewels, and obtaining them if possible. How they could tell that theywere deposited at Cotter's beats me altogether. It may be indeed thatthey really knew nothing about it, and have simply been watching me.They can hardly have been watching me for the last nine months, and yet,curiously enough, though I have never given the matter a thought since,Charley Gibbons said that it was a dark colored man who brought the newsthat took them to my rescue and saved my life. I have often run againstLascars, and if they have taken this trouble all along, now that theyhave seen me come out of the bank, I shall be watched night and day.
"It is a creepy sort of idea. I should not be afraid of any number ofthem if they attacked me openly; but there is no saying what they mightdo. I wish Ramoo had been here. I would have consulted him about it; butas I got a letter from him only last week saying that he had, on the dayof writing it, arrived in Calcutta, it is of no use wishing that. At anyrate, I cannot do better than stick to the plan that my uncle sketchedout, and take them across to Amsterdam. It would be very unfair to takethem to any jeweler here. He might have them in his possession for aweek or ten days before he made me any definite offer for them, andduring that time I would not give a fig for his life. If I distributethe stones at Amsterdam they would hardly set about attacking twelvediamond merchants one after another. Well, at any rate, I must saynothing about the affair to Millicent and Mrs. Cunningham. It was badenough my running risks in the pursuit of Bastow; but this would be tentimes worse, and I know Millicent would be for letting the things remainfor good at the banker's. But I have no idea of allowing myself to befrightened by two or three black scoundrels into throwing away 50,000pounds."
Mrs. Cunningham and Millicent were sitting in their bonnets in theparlor.
"Here you are at last, sir," the girl said. "Another five minutes, andwe should have gone out. You told us that you would come early, andnow it is twelve o'clock; and you are generally so punctual in yourappointments. What have you got to say for yourself?"
"A good many things have happened since then, Millicent. Last night yourfriend Mr. Cotter called upon me."
"Why do you say my friend? He was your friend, and it was entirelythrough you that we knew him at all."
"Well, we will say 'our friend,' Millicent; and he made a communicationto me that this morning I had to go to Mr. Prendergast and make acommunication to him."
"What do you mean by your communications?" Millicent asked, laughing."You are quite mysterious, Mark."
"And then I had to go," he went on, without heeding her interruption,"to Cotter's Bank, where I saw both our friend and his father, and thereis the result of these communications and that interview;" and he threwthe paper to her.
"What does it mean?" she asked in astonishment, after glancing throughit.
"It means, dear, that your father took exactly the precautions I thoughthe would take, and after sending his money and jewels home, he sent asealed letter to the firm with whom he deposited them, which happened tobe Cotter's, with inst
ructions that should no one present himself withthe word and coin by the 18th of August, 1789--that is to say, on youreighteenth birthday--the envelope should be opened; it was so opened,and it contained a letter that was to be sent to my father, or, in thecase of his death before that date, to his executors."
"How wonderful!" the girl said. "I had quite given up all idea of it.But how is it that it came to be so much? Have they sold the jewels?"
"No, you see it is the compound interest going on for seventeen years,and perhaps some rise in the value of the securities, that has doubledthe original sum invested. As for the jewels, I have left them at thebank; I should not care about having 50,000 pounds worth of such thingsin my rooms and I should not think that you would like to have themhere, either."
"Certainly not," Mrs. Cunningham said emphatically; "you did quiteright, Mark. I don't think I could sleep, even if you had half a dozenof your detective friends posted round the house."
"Still I suppose we shall have a chance of seeing them?" Millicent said.
"Certainly. I can make an appointment with Philip Cotter for you to seethem at the bank; or if I take them to a jeweler to value, you couldsee them there. But I should think that the bank would be the best. I amsure that Cotter would put his room at your disposal, and, of course,if you would like to have some of them for yourself you could selectany you liked, but I expect that they won't look much in their presentsettings; the Indian jewelers have not the knack of setting off gems.However, there is no hurry about them one way or another. The money,I have told Cotter's father, shall, for the present, remain as itis invested; it is all in the Funds, Cotter said, for although theinstructions were that it was to be put into good securities, he didnot feel justified under the peculiar circumstances in going outsideGovernment stock. Mr. Prendergast is quite of opinion that it would bebetter to make no change until you come of age. I did not know whetheryou would wait till then, for some purpose or other you might want touse some of it."
Millicent shrugged her shoulders.
"I think I would much rather have had just the money I had before, Mark;all this will be a great nuisance, I am sure. I think there ought to bea law against women having more than 20,000 pounds, whether in money orin land."
Mark laughed.
"It would be a bad thing for spendthrift young noblemen, Millicent. Howare they to pay off their debts and mortgages if there were no heiressesready to do so in exchange for a title?"
"It would be a good thing for them, I consider," the girl saidindignantly. "In the first place, they would not impoverish themselvesif they knew that there was no way of building up their fortune again,and in the next place, if they did ruin themselves they would have toeither set to work to earn an honest living or blow out their brains,if they have any to blow out. I can assure you that I don't feel at allexultant at getting all this money, and I think that my father was quiteright in wishing that I should know nothing about it until I married;but, on the other hand, I am heartily glad, more glad than I can say,Mark, that you have come into your share."
"I am glad for one reason, Millicent; that is, that this must put an endto the ridiculous idea you have of giving up Crowswood. Your father hasmade me rich beyond anything I could possibly have expected from him.I suddenly find myself a wealthy man, and I can buy another estate formyself worth more than Crowswood if inclined to settle down as a squire;therefore your theory that I have been disappointed in not inheritingwhat I thought was my father's estate falls to the ground altogether. Inno case would I ever have accepted your sacrifice. If you had liked tohand it over to St. Bartholomew's or Guy's Hospital, or to give it awayto any other charity, I would not have prevented you, but I would neverhave accepted it for myself. Now, thank goodness, the question cannotarise; for you must see that, even looking at the matter from a purelybusiness point of view, I have benefited to an enormous and altogetherunexpected extent by your father's will, and if any contest between uscould arise it should be on the ground that he has acted unfairly to youby giving me so large a proportion of the money that, in the course ofnature, you should have inherited. It was not even as if he had knownand liked me, for I was but four years old at the time he wrote theletter saying that I was to share the money and jewels with you."
"You are very obstinate and very disagreeable, Mark," she said, withtears in her eyes.
"I think the obstinacy has been principally on your side, Millicent;though certainly I should not think of saying that you have beendisagreeable. It has been an excess of kindheartedness on your part,and you have resolutely closed your eyes to the fact that, had I beenwilling to take advantage of your generosity, I should have lacked thecourage to do so, for I should have been pointed at wherever I went,as a mean fellow who took advantage of his little cousin's romanticgenerosity. Pray, dear, let us say no more about it. We are two richyoung people; we have both an estate; yours, I grant, is the larger,but if I choose I can increase mine, until it is quite as large asCrowswood. We can be better friends than we have been for the last year,because this point of dispute has always stood between us and made usuncomfortable. Now you will have to think over what you would like done,and whether you wish any change made in your manner of living."
"Did you tell Mr. Cotter," Millicent laughed, after a pause, "that I hada half share in the money?"
"No, that was a matter for you to decide, not for me. I told him thatI was only a half shareholder, but there was no necessity to say whoit was who had the other half. When I was talking to Philip Cotter, thewords 'my cousin' slipped out, but he did not associate it in any waywith you. It might have been the son of another brother or of a sisterof my father's."
"In that case, then, we will certainly make no change, will we, Mrs.Cunningham?"
"I think, Millicent, that Mr. Prendergast and Mark will probably be ofopinion that you ought now to be introduced regularly into society. Thefact that you are a rich heiress might, as your father so much wished,remain a secret. But it is one thing having this blazoned about andquite another for you to be living quietly here, where, with theexception of Mr. Cotter and a few other friends, you have no societywhatever. Certainly it was not the wish of your father that you shouldremain unmarried. You are quite pretty and nice enough to be sought foryourself alone, and I must say that I think, now that you have finishedwith your various masters, it would be well that you should go out agood deal more, and that as a first step we should go down to Bath thisyear instead of paying another visit to Weymouth, as we had arranged."
"I don't want any change at all, Mrs. Cunningham. If I am to get marriedI shall be married; if I am not I shall not fret about it."
"But for all that, Millicent," Mark said, "Mrs. Cunningham is right.We quite agree that there is no occasion whatever for you to go aboutlabeled 'A good estate and over 70,000 pounds in cash,' but I do thinkthat it is right that you should go into society. With the exception ofPhilip Cotter, Dick Chetwynd, and two or three other of my friends, youreally know very few people. You have now gone out of mourning, and Ithink that Mrs. Cunningham's proposal that you should go down to Bathis a very good one. I shall not be sorry for a change myself, for I havebeen engrossed in my work for a long time now. I can go down a day ortwo before you, and get you comfortable lodgings, and will myselfstay at a hotel. Although I have no intimate friends beyond those fromReigate, I know a large number of men of fashion from meeting them atthe boxing schools and other places, and could introduce you both, andget you into society."
"I am altogether opposed to the idea," Millicent said decidedly. "Youwant to trot me out like a horse for sale."
"No, Millicent," Mark said calmly. "I only want you to have the sameadvantages that other girls have, neither more nor less, and for youto enjoy yourself as others do. There is nothing undignified orobjectionable about that, especially as we are agreed that nothing shallbe said about your fortune. Well, we will think it over. Mr. Prendergastand I certainly do not wish to act as tyrants, and there is no occasionto come to a decision in a hu
rry. We have only discovered our goodfortune today, and can scarcely appreciate the difference that it willmake to us. We can think over what will be for the best at our leisure,and see if we cannot hit upon some plan that will be agreeable to you."
"Thank you, Mark," she said gratefully. "I am afraid that you must thinkme very disagreeable and cross; but though you, as a man, have not thesame sort of feelings, I can assure you that I feel all this money andso on to be a heavy burden; and were it not for your sake I could wishheartily that this treasure had never been discovered at all."
"I can quite understand that," he said quietly. "At the present moment,even, I do not see that it will be of much advantage to me; but it maybe that some day I shall see it in a different light. It has come uponme almost as suddenly as it has upon you. I thought that after I hadfinished with the Bastow affair I should set to work to find out thistreasure, and that it would probably take me out to India, occupy methere for some time, and that afterwards I might travel through otherplaces, and be away from England three or four years. Now the matteris altogether altered, and I shall be some time before I form any freshplans. In fact, these must depend upon circumstances."
Mrs. Cunningham had left the room two or three minutes before, thinkingthat Mark might be able to talk her charge into a more reasonable stateof mind were he alone with her, and he added:
"Of one circumstance in particular."
She looked up inquiringly.
"Well, Millicent, it depends a great deal upon you. I know you thinkthat all that has happened during the past year has been a little hardupon you, and I thoroughly agree with you; you were fond of Crowswood,and were very happy there, and the change to this somewhat dull house,just at a time when you are of an age to enjoy pleasure, has been atrial. Then, too, there has been this question of the estate upon yourmind. But you must remember it has been somewhat of a trial to me also.I grant that I have had plenty of occupation which has been in every waybeneficial to me, and have not at all lamented leaving the country, butin one respect it has been a trial. I don't know whether it ever enteredyour mind, before that sad time at home, that I was getting to care foryou in a very different way to that in which I had done before.
"My father, I think, observed it, for he threw out a very plain hintonce that he would very gladly see us coming together. However, I neverspoke of it to you. I was young and you were young. It seemed to me thatthere was plenty of time, and that, moreover, it would not be fair forme to speak to you until you had had the opportunity of going out and ofseeing other men. Then came the evening before his death, when my fathertold me how matters really stood, and he again said that there was a wayby which all trouble could be obviated. But I saw that it was not so,and that the hope I had entertained must be put aside. I had never toldyou I loved you when I seemed to be the heir of the property and youonly the daughter of an old comrade of his, and I saw that were I tospeak now, when you were the heiress, it could not but appear to youthat it was the estate and not you that I wanted, and I felt my lipswere sealed forever. Mr. Prendergast said that day when he came down tothe funeral, and you told him that you would not take the property, thatit might be managed in another way, and you said that you did not wantto be married for your money; so you see you saw it in exactly the samelight as I did.
"My first thought this morning, when Mr. Cotter told me that the moneyhad mounted up to over 100,000 pounds, was that it would unseal mylips. You were still better off than I was, but the difference was nowimmaterial. I was a rich man, and had not the smallest occasion to marryfor money. Whether I married a girl without a penny, or an heiress,could make but little difference to me, as I have certainly no ambitionto become a great landowner. I still think that it would have been morefair to you to give you the opportunity of seeing more of the society ofthe world before speaking to you, but you see you are opposed to that,and therefore it would be the same did I wait patiently another year,which I don't think I should be able to do. I love you, Millicent. Itis only during the past eighteen months, when I have thought that Ihad lost you, that I have known how much I love you, and how much myhappiness depends upon you. I can truly say that were you penniless, itwould make no shadow of difference to me. It is no longer a question ofarranging matters comfortably: it is a question of love. The estate isnothing to me. It never has been anything, and it does not count at allin the scale. I hope that you will put it altogether out of your mind ingiving me an answer; and that if you cannot say as truly and wholly as Ido, 'I love you,' that you will say as frankly as you have always spokento me, 'I love you very much as a cousin, Mark, but not in that way.'"
The girl had sat perfectly quiet while he was speaking.
He was standing before her now, and he took one of her hands.
"I love you, dear; I love you with all my heart. Do you love me?"
Then she looked up and rose to her feet, and placed both hands upon hisshoulders.
"As you love me, so I love you, Mark."
After that, conversation languished till Mrs. Cunningham came into theroom, five minutes later.
"We have come to the conclusion, Mrs. Cunningham," he said, "that therewill be no necessity for the visit to Bath. Millicent is otherwiseprovided for; she has promised to be my wife."
"I am glad, Mark, glad indeed!" and she took Millicent in her arms andkissed her tenderly. "I have all along hoped for it, but I began tobe afraid that you were both such obstinate young people that it wouldnever come about. I know that your father wished it, Mark, and he toldme that his brother had said that it would be a good arrangement ifsome day you should come to like each other. I have guessed for the lastyear, and, indeed, before then, that Millicent would not say 'No' if youever asked her; but this stupid estate seemed to stand in the way. Oflate, I have even come to hope that the obstinate girl would keep to herintention, and that if, as I knew would be the case, you refused to takethe estate, she would give it away to some charity. In that case, therecould be nothing to prevent your speaking; and even then you would havebeen between you very fairly equipped with this world's goods. However,the present is a far better solution, and the discovery of the treasurehas saved you from three years' waiting before things were straightenedout. I feel as if I were her mother, Mark, having had her in my chargesince she was a baby; and as she grew up it became my fondest hope tosee you united some day, and I think that I am almost as pleased that myhope has been fulfilled as you are yourselves."