m for a while from time to time so long as I live? I
have a double motive, I say frankly, in thus asking him to come
here. I wish him and my little pet, Mabel Withers, to come to like
each other. I wish to divide my property between them, and yet I
should be glad if the whole estate could remain intact.

"I should not be so foolish as to make a proviso that two persons
who are as yet so young, and who may not in any way be suitable to
each other, should marry, but nothing would please me so much as
that they should take a fancy to each other; and thrown together
as they would be here, for Mabel is constantly at the house, it is
just possible that one of those boy and girl affections, which do
sometimes, although perhaps rarely, culminate in marriage, might
spring up between them. Whether that may be so in the present case
I must leave to fate, but I should at any rate like to pave the
way for such an arrangement by bringing the young people together.
I need not say that it will be best that neither of them should
have the slightest idea of what is in my mind, for this would be
almost certain to defeat my object.

"If the proposal is agreeable to you, I hope that you will let
Ralph come to me at the beginning of his holidays; which must, I
fancy, be now near at hand. I think it will be as well that he
should not know of my intention as to the disposal of my property,
for it is better he should think that he will have to work for his
living; but at the same time there would be no harm in his knowing
that it is probable I shall help him on in life. This will make
him bear better what would otherwise be a dull visit. But I leave
this matter entirely in your hands. You know the boy and I do not,
and you can therefore better judge what will be best for him to
know. And now, dear Mary, if you will pardon my once again calling
you so,

"I remain,

"Your affectionate friend,

"HERBERT PENFOLD."

It was characteristic of Mrs. Conway that at the first reading of this
letter she thought rather of the writer than of the bright prospects
which his offer opened to her son. She thought rather of Herbert
Penfold, her first love, now ill, if not dying, of the days of their
engagement and its rupture, than of the fact that her son was to
inherit half the Penfold estates. She had been sorely hurt at the
ti