ovelin? I suppose that his executor, or some one
appointed by him, is now your legal guardian."

"I have not even asked what the law is," I replied. "Lord Castlewood is
my proper guardian, according to all common-sense, and I mean to have
him so. He has inquired through his solicitors as to Mr. Shovelin, and
I am quite free there. My father's will is quite good, they say; but it
never has been proved, and none of them care to do it. My cousin thinks
that I could compel them to prove it, or to renounce in proper form; but
Mr. Shovelin's sons are not nice people--as different from him as night
from day, careless and wild and dashing."

"Then do you mean to do nothing about it? What a time she is finding
that hammer!"

"I leave it entirely to my cousin, and he is waiting for legal advice.
I wish to have the will, of course, for the sake of my dear father; but
with or without any will, my mother's little property comes to me. And
if my dear father had nothing to leave, why should we run up a great
lawyer's bill?"

"To be sure not! I see. That makes all the difference. I admire your
common-sense," said the Major--"but there! Come and look, and just
exercise it here. There is that very strange woman again, just at the
end of my new road. She stands quite still, and then stares about,
sometimes for an hour together. Nobody knows who she is, or why she
came. She has taken a tumble-down house on my manor, from a wretch of a
fellow who denies my title; and what she lives on is more than any one
can tell, for she never spends sixpence in Bruntsea. Some think that she
walks in the dark to Newport, and gets all her food at some ship stores
there. And one of our fishermen vows that he met her walking on the sea,
as he rowed home one night, and she had a long red bag on her shoulder.
She is a witch, that is certain; for she won't answer me, however
politely I accost her. But the oddest thing of all is the name she gave
to the fellow she took the house from. What do you think she called
herself? Of all things in the world--'Mrs. Castlewood!' I congratulate
you on your relative."

"How very strange!" I answered. "Oh, now I see why you connect me with
it; and I beg your pardon for having been vexed. But let me go and see
her. Oh, may I go at once, if you please, and speak to her?"

"The very thing I wish--if you are not afraid. I will come with you,
when I get my hammer. Oh, here it is! Mary, how clever you are! Now look
out of th