to support the peerage
which he was going to get. He said also," she added slowly, "that I was
'an ignorant, interfering vixen,' yes, that is what he called me, a
vixen, who had always been a disappointment to him and thwarted his
plans. 'However,' he went on, 'as you think so little of my hard-earned
money, I'll take care that you don't have more of it than I can help. I
am not going to leave it to be wasted on silly charities by a sour old
maid, for that's what you are, since you can't get hold of your
precious parson's son, who I hope will be sent to the war and killed.
I'll see the lawyers to-morrow, and make a will, which I hope you'll
find pleasant reading one day.'

"I answered that he might make what will he liked, and left the room,
though he tried to stop me.

"About half an hour later I saw the butler running about the garden
where I was, looking for me in the gloom, and heard him calling: 'Come
to Sir John, miss. Come to Sir John!'

"I went in and there was my father fallen forward on the dining-room
table, with blood coming from his lips, though I believe this was
caused by a crushed wineglass. His pocket-book was open beneath him, in
which he had been writing figures of his estate, and, I think, headings
for the will he meant to make, but these I could not read since the
faint pencilling was blotted out with blood. He was quite dead from
some kind of a stroke followed by heart failure, as the doctors said."

"Is that all the pleasant story?" asked Godfrey.

"Yes, except that there being no will I inherited everything, or shall
do so. I tried to get that contract cancelled, but could not; first,
because having once made it the Government would not consent, since to
do so would have been a reflection on those concerned, and secondly,
for the reason that the other partners in the shipping business
objected. So we shall have to give it back in some other way."

Godfrey looked at her, and said:

"You meant to say that _you_ will have to give it back."

"I don't know what I meant," she answered, colouring; "but having said
_we_, I think I will be like the Government and stick to it. That is,
unless you object very much, my dear."

"Object! _I_ object!" and taking the hand that was nearest to him, he
covered it with kisses. As he did so he noted that for the first time
she wore the little ring with turquoise hearts upon her third finger,
the ring that so many years before he had bought at Lucerne, the