a marriage-settlement, and then told
her exactly what her prospects were--in the first place, on her coming
of age, and in the second place, on the decease of her uncle--marking
the distinction between the property in which she had a life-interest
only, and the property which was left at her own control. She listened
attentively, with the constrained expression still on her face, and her
hands still nervously clasped together in her lap.

"And now," I said in conclusion, "tell me if you can think of any
condition which, in the case we have supposed, you would wish me to
make for you--subject, of course, to your guardian's approval, as you
are not yet of age."

She moved uneasily in her chair, then looked in my face on a sudden
very earnestly.

"If it does happen," she began faintly, "if I am----"

"If you are married," I added, helping her out.

"Don't let him part me from Marian," she cried, with a sudden outbreak
of energy. "Oh, Mr. Gilmore, pray make it law that Marian is to live
with me!"

Under other circumstances I might, perhaps, have been amused at this
essentially feminine interpretation of my question, and of the long
explanation which had preceded it. But her looks and tones, when she
spoke, were of a kind to make me more than serious--they distressed me.
Her words, few as they were, betrayed a desperate clinging to the past
which boded ill for the future.

"Your having Marian Halcombe to live with you can easily be settled by
private arrangement," I said. "You hardly understood my question, I
think. It referred to your own property--to the disposal of your
money. Supposing you were to make a will when you come of age, who
would you like the money to go to?"

"Marian has been mother and sister both to me," said the good,
affectionate girl, her pretty blue eyes glistening while she spoke.
"May I leave it to Marian, Mr. Gilmore?"

"Certainly, my love," I answered. "But remember what a large sum it
is. Would you like it all to go to Miss Halcombe?"

She hesitated; her colour came and went, and her hand stole back again
to the little album.

"Not all of it," she said. "There is some one else besides Marian----"

She stopped; her colour heightened, and the fingers of the hand that
rested upon the album beat gently on the margin of the drawing, as if
her memory had set them going mechanically with the remembrance of a
favourite tune.

"You mean some other member of the family besides Miss