!--I was under the impression that your father was letting things
slide, and was doing nothing to save the estate and to provide for you,
he was speculating and investing; and doing it with a skill and a
shrewdness which could not have been surpassed by the most astute and
business-like of men. His judgment was almost infallible; he seems
scarcely ever to have made a mistake. It was one of those extraordinary
cases in which everything a man touches turns to gold. There are mining
shares there which I would not have bought at a farthing a piece; but
your father bought them, and they've everyone of them, or nearly
everyone of them, turned up trumps. Some of them which he bought for a
few shillings--gold and diamond shares--are worth hundreds of pounds;
hundreds? thousands! My dear," he took her hand and patted it as if he
were trying to break the shock to her; "your poor father whom we all
regarded as an insolvent book-worm, actually died by far and away the
richest man in the county!"

Ida looked at him as if she did not even yet quite understand. She
passed her thin hand over her brow and drew a long breath.

"Do you mean--do you mean that I am no longer poor, Mr. Wordley?" she
asked.

Mr. Wordley laughed so suddenly and loudly that he quite startled the
hall porter in his little glass box.

"My dear child," he said, slowly and impressively, "you are rich, not
poor; im-mense-ly rich! I do not myself yet quite know how much you are
worth; but you may take it from me that it's a very large sum indeed.
Now, you are not going to faint, my dear!" For Ida's eyes had closed
and her hands had clasped each other spasmodically.

"No, no," she said in a low voice, "But it is so sudden, so unexpected,
that I cannot realise it. It seems to me as if I were lying in the cot
upstairs and dreaming. No, I cannot realise that I can go back to
Herondale: I suppose I can go back?" she asked, with a sudden
piteousness that very nearly brought the tears to Mr. Wordley's eyes.

"Go back, my dear!" he exclaimed. "Of course you can go back! The place
belongs to you. Why, I've already given notice that I am going to pay
off the mortgages. You will get every inch of the land back; you will
be the richest lady in the county--yes, in the whole county! The old
glories of the dear old house can be revived; you can queen it there as
the Herons of old used to queen it. And everybody will be proud and
delighted to see you doing it! As for me, I am