look or a gesture denoted how the tidings affected her.

"Well," asked he at last, "what do you say to it all?"

"It's worse--I mean worse for us--than I had ever suspected! Surely,
Gusty, _you_ had no conception that their case had such apparent
strength and solidity?"

"I have thought so for many a day," said he, gloomily.

"Thought that they, and not we--" she could not go on.

"Just so, dearest," said he, drawing his chair to her side, and laying
his hand affectionately on her shoulder.

"And do you believe that poor papa thought so?" said she, and her eyes
now swam in tears.

A scarcely perceptible nod was all his answer.

"Oh, Gusty, this is more misery than I was prepared for!" cried she,
throwing herself on his shoulder. "To think that all the time we
were--what many called--outraging the world with display; exhibiting our
wealth in every ostentatious way; to think that it was not ours, that we
were mere pretenders, with a mock rank, a mock station."

"My father did not go thus far, Nelly," said he, gravely. "That he did
not despise these pretensions I firmly believe; but that they ever gave
him serious reason to suppose his right could be successfully disputed,
this I do not believe. His fear was, that when the claim came to be
resisted by one like myself, the battle would be ill fought. It was in
this spirit he said, 'Would that Marion had been a boy! '"

"And what will you do, Gusty?"

"I 'll tell you what I will not do, Nelly," said he, firmly. "I will
not, as this letter counsels me, go back to live where it is possible
I have no right to live, nor spend money to which the law may to-morrow
declare I have no claim. I will abide by what that law shall declare,
without one effort to bias it in my favor. I have a higher pride in
submitting myself to this trial than ever I had in being the owner of
Castello. It may be that I shall not prove equal to what I propose to
myself. I have no over-confidence in my own strength, but I like to
think, that if I come well through the ordeal, I shall have done what
will dignify a life, humble even as mine, and give me a self-respect
without which existence is valueless to me. Will you stand by me, Nelly,
in this struggle--I shall need you much?"

"To the last," said she, giving him both her hands, which he grasped
within his, and pressed affectionately.

"Write, then, one line from me to Sedley, to say that I entrust the case
entirely to his guidance; that I