loving one, too."

"Mother! Mother! Why recall that bitter day? I did not think--I swear I
did not think----"

"Never mind swearing. I was just reminding you that the Rawdons have
not been the finest specimens of good husbands. They make landlords, and
judges, and soldiers, and even loom-lords of a very respectable sort;
but husbands! Lord help their poor wives! So you see, as a Mostyn woman,
I have no special interest in Rawdon Court."

"You would not like it to go out of the family?"

"I should not worry myself if it did."

"I suppose you know Fred Mostyn has a mortgage on it that the present
Squire is unable to lift."

"Aye, Fred told me he had eighty thousand pounds on the old place. I
told him he was a fool to put his money on it."

"One of the finest manors and manor-houses in England, mother."

"I have seen it. I was born and brought up near enough to it, I think."

"Eighty thousand pounds is a bagatelle for the place; yet if Fred forces
a sale, it may go for that, or even less. I can't bear to think of it."

"Why not buy it yourself?"

"I would lift the mortgage to-morrow if I had the means. I have not at
present."

"Well, I am in the same box. You have just spoken as if the Mostyns
and Rawdons had an equal interest in Rawdon Court. Very well, then, it
cannot be far wrong for Fred Mostyn to have it. Many a Mostyn has gone
there as wife and slave. I would dearly like to see one Mostyn go as
master."

"I shall get no help from you, then, I understand that."

"I'm Mostyn by birth, I'm only Rawdon by, marriage. The birth-band ties
me fast to my family."

"Good morning, mother. You have failed me for the first time in your
life."

"If the money had been for you, Edward, or yours----"

"It is--good-by."

She called him back peremptorily, and he returned and stood at the open
door.

"Why don't you ask Ethel?"

"I did not think I had the right, mother."

"More right to ask her than I. See what she says. She's Rawdon, every
inch of her."

"Perhaps I may. Of course, I can sell securities, but it would be at a
sacrifice a great sacrifice at present."

"Ethel has the cash; and, as I said, she is Rawdon--I'm not."

"I wish my father were alive."

"He wouldn't move me--you needn't think that. What I have said to you I
would have said to him. Speak to Ethel. I'll be bound she'll listen if
Rawdon calls her."

"I don't like to speak to Ethel."

"It isn't what you like to do, it's what you fi