All the world knows that he has the rights of an adopted son."

"All the world knows equally well, that failing to produce the will,
Prince has lost his legacy, and must enlist in the army of
'bread-winners'."

"Then what becomes of 'Elm Bluff' and its fine estate?"

"They descend in the line decreed alike by law and nature, to the
nearest blood relation."

Leo felt the blood reddening her throat and cheeks, but under the quick
glance of her hazel eyes, his handsome face always en garde showed no
embarrassing consciousness. Fearful of silence, she said in a
perplexed, inconsequent tone:

"How manifestly unjust. Poor Kittie!"

"Why poor Kittie? Her beaming face is eloquent repudiation of your
pity, and she verily believes her blond-headed, scholarly Prince a
bountiful equivalent for all Croesus' belongings. Rich little Kittie!
After all, where genuine love reigns, worldly environment matters
comparatively little; love makes happiness, and happiness is the
reconciler."

A throb of pain shook the woman's heart as she realized the bitter
truth that he spoke from an experience born out of season: that he was
athirst for that which her fortune, her love, her own fair, graceful
self could never give him.

She looked at him, with an arch smile lighting her face, but he saw the
trembling of her lips, noted the metallic ring in her voice.

"'Et in Arcadia Ego?' Recent associations have rendered you idyllic. I
can recall a period when 'love in a cottage' was the target that
challenged the keenest arrows of your satire. Rich little Kittie has my
warmest congratulations. Will Prince remain in X--?"

"How can he? The demand here for amateur scientists is not sufficiently
encouraging; and I rather think he gravitates toward a college
professorship, which might at least supply him abundantly with rabbits,
turtles, frogs and guinea-pigs for biological manipulation and
experiment. One of the gay balloons floating through his mind, is a
series of lectures to be delivered in the large cities. Heredity is his
pet hobby, and he proposes to canter it under the saddle of Weismann's
theory (whatever that may be), expounding it to scientific Americans.
As yet no plans have crystallized. His allowance was paid
semi-annually, but of course it failed him last January, and no
alternative presents itself but some attempt to utilize his technical
lore. There is a vacancy in the faculty of C---University, and I shall
write at once to