be.
A private correspondence followed this resolution, comprehending, on
Allan's side, unlimited offers of everything he had to give (in a house
which he had not yet seen), and, on the ladies' side, a discreetly
reluctant readiness to profit by the young gentleman's generosity in the
matter of time. To the astonishment of his legal advisers, Allan entered
their office one morning, accompanied by Mr. Brock, and announced, with
perfect composure, that the ladies had been good enough to take his own
arrangements off his hands, and that, in deference to their convenience,
he meant to defer establishing himself at Thorpe Ambrose till that
day two months. The lawyers stared at Allan, and Allan, returning the
compliment, stared at the lawyers.

"What on earth are you wondering at, gentlemen?" he inquired, with a
boyish bewilderment in his good-humored blue eyes. "Why shouldn't I
give the ladies their two months, if the ladies want them? Let the poor
things take their own time, and welcome. My rights? and my position? Oh,
pooh! pooh! I'm in no hurry to be squire of the parish; it's not in my
way. What do I mean to do for the two months? What I should have done
anyhow, whether the ladies had stayed or not; I mean to go cruising
at sea. That's what _I_ like! I've got a new yacht at home in
Somersetshire--a yacht of my own building. And I'll tell you what, sir,"
continued Allan, seizing the head partner by the arm in the fervor of
his friendly intentions, "you look sadly in want of a holiday in the
fresh air, and you shall come along with me on the trial trip of my new
vessel. And your partners, too, if they like. And the head clerk, who
is the best fellow I ever met with in my life. Plenty of room--we'll all
shake down together on the floor, and we'll give Mr. Brock a rug on the
cabin table. Thorpe Ambrose be hanged! Do you mean to say, if you had
built a vessel yourself (as I have), you would go to any estate in the
three kingdoms, while your own little beauty was sitting like a duck on
the water at home, and waiting for you to try her? You legal gentlemen
are great hands at argument. What do you think of that argument? I think
it's unanswerable--and I'm off to Somersetshire to-morrow."

With those words, the new possessor of eight thousand a year dashed into
the head clerk's office, and invited that functionary to a cruise on the
high seas, with a smack on the shoulder which was heard distinctly by
his masters in the next roo