n estate, as
reported to him by Lawyer Ferris, was larger than he had supposed, and
if it were his he would be a richer man than he had ever hoped to be. He
liked money, and what it would bring him, and if he had been sure of his
foothold he would have been very happy. And he was nearly sure. There
was no will in the house, he was certain, for he had gone a second and
third time through every place where one could possibly have been put,
and found nothing. He was safe there, and as he did not know all which
Mr. Mason had written to his son, he did not greatly fear the result of
Eloise's trip to the South, which he thought a foolish undertaking. But
she was bent upon going and the day was fixed. Grandmother Smith had
returned home to await developments. Amy was ready. Eloise's lameness
was nearly gone, "And to-morrow we start," she said to him one evening,
when, after dinner, she joined him in the library, where he spent most
of his time.

Every day since his uncle's death, and he had seen so much of Eloise,
Howard's interest in her had increased, until it amounted to a passion,
if not positive love. Jack was a formidable rival, he knew, but now that
he was probably master of Crompton Place, where her mother would be
happier than elsewhere, she might think favorably of him. At all events
he'd take the chance, and now was his time. Looking up quickly as she
came in, and drawing a chair close to him for her, he said, "Sit down a
moment while I talk to you." She sat down, and he continued, "I wish you
would give up this journey, which can only end in disappointment. I have
no idea there was a marriage, or that you could prove it if there was.
My uncle was not a brute. He loved Amy, and would not have kept silent
till he died if she had been his legitimate daughter. Give up the
project. I will gladly share the fortune with you, and be a son to your
mother. Will you, Eloise? I must call you that, and I ask you to be my
wife. It is not so sudden as you may think," he continued, as he saw her
look of surprise. "I do not show all I feel. I admired you from the
first, but Jack seemed to be ahead, and I gave way to him, not
understanding until within the last few days how much you were to me. I
love you, and ask you again to be my wife."

He had one of her hands in his, but it was cold and pulseless, and it
seemed to him it told her answer before she said, very kindly, as if
sorry to give him pain:

"I believe you are my cousin