ut, as we have said, there was one point on which Mary would have
her own way. The lawyers might tie up as they would on her behalf all
the money, and shares, and mortgages which had belonged to the late
Sir Roger, with this exception, all that had ever appertained to
Greshamsbury should belong to Greshamsbury again; not in perspective,
not to her children, or to her children's children, but at once.
Frank should be lord of Boxall Hill in his own right; and as to those
other _liens_ on Greshamsbury, let Frank manage that with his father
as he might think fit. She would only trouble herself to see that he
was empowered to do as he did think fit.

"But," argued the ancient, respectable family attorney to the doctor,
"that amounts to two-thirds of the whole estate. Two-thirds, Dr
Thorne! It is preposterous; I should almost say impossible." And the
scanty hairs on the poor man's head almost stood on end as he thought
of the outrageous manner in which the heiress prepared to sacrifice
herself.

"It will all be the same in the end," said the doctor, trying to make
things smooth. "Of course, their joint object will be to put the
Greshamsbury property together again."

"But, my dear sir,"--and then, for twenty minutes, the lawyer
went on proving that it would by no means be the same thing; but,
nevertheless, Mary Thorne did have her own way.

In the course of the winter, Lady de Courcy tried very hard to induce
the heiress to visit Courcy Castle, and this request was so backed by
Lady Arabella, that the doctor said he thought she might as well go
there for three or four days. But here, again, Mary was obstinate.

"I don't see it at all," she said. "If you make a point of it,
or Frank, or Mr Gresham, I will go; but I can't see any possible
reason." The doctor, when so appealed to, would not absolutely say
that he made a point of it, and Mary was tolerably safe as regarded
Frank or the squire. If she went, Frank would be expected to go, and
Frank disliked Courcy Castle almost more than ever. His aunt was now
more than civil to him, and, when they were together, never ceased to
compliment him on the desirable way in which he had done his duty by
his family.

And soon after Christmas a visitor came to Mary, and stayed a
fortnight with her: one whom neither she nor the doctor had expected,
and of whom they had not much more than heard. This was the famous
Miss Dunstable. "Birds of a feather flock together," said Mrs
Rantaway