claimant of the Holt. With Owen helpless
upon her hands, she needed both a home and ample means to provide for him
and his sister and child; and the American heir, an unwelcome idea twenty
years previously, when only a vague possibility, was doubly undesirable
when long possession had endeared her inheritance to her, when he proved
not even to be a true Charlecote, and when her own adopted children were
in sore want of all that she could do for them. The evident
relinquishment of poor Owen's own selfish views on the Holt made her the
less willing to admit a rival, and she was sufficiently on the borders of
age to be pained by having the question of heirship brought forward. And
she knew, what Owen did not, that, if this youth's descent were indeed
what it was said to be, he represented the elder line, and that even
Humfrey had wondered what would be his duty in the present contingency.

'Nonsense!' said she to herself. 'There is no need as yet to think of
it! The place is my own by every right! Humfrey told me so! I will
take time to see what this youth may be, and make sure of his
relationship. Then, if it be right and just, he shall come after me.
But I _will_ not raise expectations, nor notice him more than as Owen's
friend and a distant kinsman. It would be fatally unsettling to do
more.'

Owen urged her no farther. Either he had not energy to enforce any point
for long together, or he felt that the succession might be a delicate
subject, for he let her lead to his personal affairs, and he was invalid
enough to find them fully engrossing.

The Canadian came in punctually, full of animation and excitement, of
which Phoebe had the full benefit, till he was called to help Owen to
dress. While this was going on, Robert came into the drawing-room to
breathe, after the hard task of pacifying Mrs. Murrell.

'What are you going to do to-day, Phoebe?' he asked. 'Have you got
through your shopping?'

'Some of it. Do you mean that you could come out with me?'

'Yes; you will never get through business otherwise.'

'Then if you have an afternoon to spare, could not we take Mr. Randolf to
the Tower?'

'Why, Phoebe!'

'He has only to-day at liberty, and is so full of eagerness about all the
grand old historical places, that it seems hard that he should have to
find his way about alone, with no one to sympathize with him--half the
day cut up, too, with nursing Owen.'

'He seems to have no difficulty in fi