.

He soon found out his mistake. In the first place the solicitor, who had
a powerful and hereditary interest in the affairs of Hunsdon, was
shocked beyond expression at the idea of such a voyage being undertaken
at all. Here, he would have said if he had spoken his thoughts, was a
young man just come into a fine estate, a magnificent estate in fact,
and one of the finest positions in the country, and the very first thing
he thinks of, is to hurry off on a long sea-voyage to a half-barbarous
country, without once stopping to consider that if he were to be
drowned, or killed in a railway accident, or lost in the woods, the
estate might fall into Chancery, or at the best go to a woman. Mr. Payne
mentally trembled at such rashness, and he expressed enough of the
horror he felt, to make Maurice aware that it really was a less simple
matter than he had supposed, and that his new fortunes had their claims
and drawbacks. Mr. Payne followed up his first blow with others. He
immediately began to ask, "If you go, what do you wish done in such a
case?" And the cases were so many that Maurice, in spite of the
knowledge Mr. Beresford had made him acquire of his affairs, became
really puzzled and harassed. Finally, he saw that a delay of a week
would be inevitable; and the solicitor, having gained the day so far,
relented, and allowed him to hope that after a week's application to
business, he would be in a position to please himself.

Next day Maurice was left alone at Hunsdon. He wrote his last letter to
his father, and being determined to follow it himself so shortly, he
sent no message to the Costellos. Then he set to work hard and steadily
to clear the way for his departure.

CHAPTER III.

One day Maurice rode over to Dighton, and told his cousin he was come to
say good-bye. She was not, of course, surprised to hear that he was
really going, but she could not help expressing her wonder at the
lightness with which he spoke of a journey of so many thousand miles.

"You talk of going to Canada," she said, "just as I should talk of going
to Paris--as if it were an affair of a few hours."

"If it were six times as far," he answered, "it would make no difference
to me, except that I should be more impatient to start; and yet most
likely when I get there I shall find my journey useless."

Somehow or other there had come to be a tolerably clear understanding,
on Lady Dighton's part, of the state of affairs between Mauric