once favourite daughter
was very painful. He scarcely aroused himself to greet her.

"You have come a long distance, daughter, and have been a long time
coming," he said, putting out his hand, and looking up coldly in her
face. "I suppose you feared the old man might die and leave his wealth
elsewhere; it was that made you come, Edda?"

Mrs Armytage, with her eyes full of tears, stooped down and kissed the
old man's forehead. "Father, no--do not be so cruel as to speak thus,"
she sobbed out. "Money I have never coveted. You sent for Colonel
Armytage; you desired us to accompany him, and most gladly we came; but
it was to see you, and you only, dear father."

"Ah, so I did--now I recollect," said Sir Marcus. "I never loved him
and he never loved me, but he is a man--he has sense; he knows the
world; he can rule a disorderly household. Go out, all of you. Let him
come in; we have matters to arrange, and no time is to be lost. Go, go
quickly!"

Colonel Armytage and Mr Boland, when summoned, hurried up to the old
man's room with due alacrity. They were closeted an hour or more with
Sir Marcus, and when they came out there was a look of satisfaction in
the colonel's countenance which showed that he believed he had attained
the object he had in view incoming to see his father-in-law. When he
soon afterwards met his wife, he appeared to be in far better humour
than she had long known him.

"Your father, my good wife, is a far more reasonable man than I expected
to find him," he said, taking her hand with an unusually affectionate
air. "I had few or no difficulties with him. He told me, what I have
long suspected, that your sister Hilda is the victim at times of strange
hallucinations, that she is eccentric always--in fact, that she is
totally unable to manage this property. He has therefore, in the most
sensible way, left it entirely to us, with the proviso that we make a
certain allowance for your sister's maintenance. Our daughter,
therefore, becomes the heiress of Lunnasting, and as such I feel has a
right to make as good a match as any girl in the kingdom."

"Poor Hilda!" was all Mrs Armytage said; she was going to add, "Poor
Edda!" for she foresaw the grief and trouble prepared for her daughter.

"Why, madam, you do not look pleased at this announcement of our good
fortune," said Colonel Armytage.

"How can I, when I know that my poor sister, who has so long been
mistress here, will ere long find