ves.

"So I suppose the Chase isn't our home any longer?" asked Dulcie, as the
young Ingletons clustered round their cousin for explanations. "Who is
this Leslie? We've never heard anything of him before."

"I didn't know Uncle Tristram had a son!" said Roland.

"Will everything be his instead of Everard's?" asked Bevis pitifully.

"No, and yes," replied Cousin Clare. "The estate is certainly left to
Leslie, but, as it happens, she is a daughter, and not a son."

Here was a surprise indeed!

"A daughter!" echoed Lilias. "The Chase left to a girl!"

"Remember, she is the daughter of the elder son, so that in your
grandfather's opinion she was the lawful heiress."

"But where does she live?"

"How old is she?"

"Why have we never seen her?"

"It's a long story," said Cousin Clare. "But, without going into any
details, I can tell you briefly that years ago your grandfather and your
Uncle Tristram had a serious quarrel. It was about a lady whom your
grandfather thought his elder son loved, and whom he very much wished
him to marry. Well, we can't love to order, and, though Tristram liked
and respected the prospective bride whom his father had chosen for him,
he had given his heart to a beautiful Italian girl, and he insisted upon
marrying her. The affair caused a complete breach between them, but
shortly before Tristram's death he patched up a half reconciliation, and
sent home a photograph of his wife and little daughter, whom he named
'Leslie' after her grandfather. I believe some years ago an effort was
made to bring the child over to England to be educated, but her mother,
who by that time was married again and living in Sicily, refused to give
her up to her English relations. I have never seen her myself, but she
must be quite fourteen years old by now. It will be a great surprise to
her to learn that she succeeds to the property."

"And a great disappointment to us," said Lilias bitterly. "It seems most
unfair, when we've lived at the Chase all these years, that this
interloper should step in and turn us out of our home."

"I hate her!" declared Clifford, clenching his little fists.

"No, no, dears! Don't take it in that way!" begged Cousin Clare.
"Remember that, after all, the Chase was Grandfather's property, and he
had absolute right to leave it to whom he pleased. He stood in the
place of parents to you all, but that did not mean that he must will the
estate to Everard. Leslie is also his grandchil