he is
likely to be very exacting in this matter. His claim, however, must be
looked to in the first place, before we admit any thing on your part. If
the property was really entailed, he has undoubtedly a right to it, both
in honesty and in law; but methinks there he might limit his claim if
his sense of real equity be strong; but the entail must be made
perfectly clear before you can admit so much as that."

"Well, well, sir," said Mrs. Hazleton, hastily, for she heard a step on
the outer stairs, "I will leave it entirely to you, Sir Philip, I am
sure you will take good care of my interests."

Sir Philip did not altogether like the word interests, and bowing his
head somewhat stiffly, he added, "and of your honor, my dear madam."

Mrs. Hazleton liked his words as little as he did hers, and she colored
highly. She made no reply, indeed, but his words that night were never
forgotten.

The next moment Mr. Marlow entered the room with a quiet, easy air,
evidently quite unconscious of having been the subject of conversation.
During the evening he paid every sort of polite attention to his fair
hostess, and undoubtedly showed signs and symptoms of thinking her a
very beautiful and charming woman. Whatever was her game, take my word
for it, reader, she played it skilfully, and the very fact of her
retiring early, at the very moment when she had made the most favorable
impression, leaving Sir Philip Hastings to entertain Mr. Marlow at
supper, was not without its calculation.

As soon as the lady was gone, Sir Philip turned to the topic of Mrs.
Hazleton's business with his young companion, and managed the matter
more skilfully than might have been expected. He simply told him that
Mrs. Hazleton had mentioned a claim made upon her estate by his lawyers,
and had thought it better to leave the investigation of the affair to
her friend, rather than to professional persons.

A frank good-humored smile came upon Mr. Marlow's face at once. "I am
not a rich man, Sir Philip," he said, "and make no professions of
generosity, but, at the same time, as my grand-uncle undoubtedly had
this money from Mrs. Hazleton's father, I should most likely never have
troubled her on the subject, but that this very estate is the original
seat of our family, on which we can trace our ancestors back through
many centuries. The property was undoubtedly entailed, my father and my
uncle were still living when it was sold, and performed no disentailing