e said, thoughtfully, 'the best thing for the place--ay,
and for you and every one, would be for you to marry; but there's little
chance of that, I suppose, and it is of no use to distress you by
mentioning it. I've been trying to put out of my hands things that I
don't think you will be able to manage, but I should like you to keep up
the home farm, and you may pretty well trust to Brooks. I dare say he
will take his own way, but if you keep a reasonable check on him, he will
do very well by you. He is as honest as the day, and very intelligent.
I don't know that any one could do better for you.'

'Oh, yes; I will mind all he tells me.'

'Don't show that you mind him. That is the way to spoil him. Poor
fellow, he has been a good servant to me, and so have they all. It is a
thing to be very thankful for to have had such a set of good servants.'

Honora thought, but did not say, that they could not help being good with
such a master.

He went on to tell her that he had made Mr. Saville his executor. Mr.
Saville had been for many years before leaving Oxford bursar of his
college, and was a thorough man of business whom Humfrey had fixed upon
as the person best qualified to be an adviser and assistant to Honora,
and he only wished to know whether she wished for any other selection,
but this was nearly overpowering her again, for since her father's death
she had leant on no one but Humfrey himself.

One thing more he had to say. 'You know, Honor, this place will be
entirely your own. You and I seem to be the last of the Charlecotes, and
even if we were not, there is no entail. You may found orphan asylums
with it, or leave it to poor Sandbrook's children, just as you please.'

'Oh, I could not do that,' cried Honor, with a sudden revulsion. Love
them as she might, Owen Sandbrook's children must not step into Humfrey
Charlecote's place. 'And, besides,' she added, 'I want my little Owen to
be a clergyman; I think he can be what his father missed.'

'Well, you can do exactly as you think fit. Only what I wanted to tell
you is, that there may be another branch, elder than our own. Not that
this need make the least difference, for the Holt is legally ours. It
seems that our great grandfather had an elder son--a wild sort of
fellow--the old people used to tell stories of him. He went on, in
short, till he was disinherited, and went off to America. What became of
him afterwards I never could make out; but I