ccept a position of the kind. And above all, when we know
that there are others--the Harpers, I mean--who _have_ claims upon her.
For, but for the grandfather's misconduct, he would have had a good
proportion of what is now Lady Myrtle's.'

'I absolutely agree with you, Frank,' Mrs Mildmay replied. 'And my most
earnest hope is that our good old friend may come to see things in the
right light with regard to her own family. This very conversation which
I am urging may be a means of leading her to do so.'

Mrs Mildmay's courage would perhaps have failed her had she known what
the 'conversation' she alluded to so lightly was really to consist of.
It began by the most strenuous opposition on the old lady's side to the
Barmettle plan. She had set her heart on Colonel Mildmay's accepting the
post in London which was, according to her, 'the very thing to be
desired for him.'

'You would be so near me,' she said. 'Any or all of you could come down
at any time. Robin Redbreast would be your country home.'

Colonel Mildmay smiled gently while he thanked her, and then he reminded
her of the overwhelming difference of the two appointments as regarded
the 'pay.'

'But that needn't--that _would_ not signify,' Lady Myrtle began, though
with evident difficulty in expressing herself, while Mrs Mildmay's heart
beat faster as she realised that they were approaching 'the tug of war.'
'I--you must know--it is only natural;' and with other confused
expressions about Jacinth being to her 'as her own child,' 'no one of
her own kith or kin except the Elvedons,' whose affairs were long ago
definitely arranged, and references to her unforgotten devotion to the
Jacinth of her youth, the old lady plunged into the thick of things. She
had not meant to speak so soon, she said; she had wished her intentions
to be _faits accomplis_ before she disclosed them, but all this had
upset her and she must explain.

And then she told the whole, and Colonel and Mrs Mildmay, though a
little prepared for some announcement of proposed benefit to Jacinth in
the future, listened in appalled and almost stunned silence to Lady
Myrtle Goodacre's eccentric and, in their eyes, extravagant
determination.

Jacinth was to be her heir--all that she had to dispose of, and it was
still a great deal, even without that portion of her wealth which, with
the knowledge that the old lord would have approved of her doing so, she
meant to restore to the title; even shorn of tha