ow absolutely, every acre of them, at his own
disposal. He had one child left him, a daughter,--in whom, it is
hoped, the reader may be induced to take some interest, and with
her to feel some sympathy, for she will be the person with whom the
details of this little story must most be concerned; and he had a
male heir, who must needs inherit the title of the family, one George
Hotspur,--not a nephew, for Sir Harry had never had a brother, but
the son of a first cousin who had not himself been much esteemed at
Humblethwaite.

Now Sir Harry was a man who, in such a condition as this in which
he was now placed, would mainly be guided by his ideas of duty. For
a month or two he said not a word to any one, not even to his own
lawyer, though he himself had made a will, a temporary will, duly
witnessed by Mr. Lanesby and another, so that the ownership of the
property should not be adjusted simply by the chance direction of law
in the event of his own sudden demise; but his mind was doubtless
much burdened with the subject. How should he discharge this fresh
responsibility which now rested on him? While his boy had lived, the
responsibility of his property had had nothing for him but charms.
All was to go to the young Harry,--all, as a matter of course; and
it was only necessary for him to take care that every acre should
descend to his heir not only unimpaired by him in value, but also
somewhat increased. Provision for his widow and for his girl had
already been made before he had ventured on matrimony,--provision
sufficient for many girls had Fortune so far favoured him. But that
an eldest son should have all the family land,--one, though as many
sons should have been given to him as to Priam,--and that that one
should have it unencumbered, as he had had it from his father,--this
was to him the very law of his being. And he would have taught that
son, had already begun to teach him when the great blow came, that
all this was to be given to him, not that he might put it into
his own belly, or wear it on his own back, or even spend it as he
might list himself, but that he might so live as to do his part in
maintaining that order of gentlehood in England, by which England had
become--so thought Sir Harry--the proudest and the greatest and the
justest of nations.

But now he had no son, and yet the duty remained to him of
maintaining his order. It would perhaps have been better for him,
it would certainly have been easier, had