ft into the areas of houses in squares. All the windows were shut.
Dust lay thick on everything. My laundress had evidently chosen this as
a good time for her holiday. I wondered idly where she spent it. And now
the close, musty smell of the rooms caught at my senses, and I
remembered with a positive pang the sweet scent of the earth and the
dead leaves in that wood through which, at this very moment, the
sensible and fortunate Edmundson would be riding.

The thought of dead leaves reminded me of the heap of correspondence. I
glanced through it. Only one of all those letters interested me in the
least. It was from my mother:--

"ELLIOT'S BAY, NORFOLK,
_17th August_.

"DEAR LAWRENCE,--I have wonderful news for you. Your
great-uncle Sefton has died, and left you half his immense
property. The other half is left to your second cousin Selwyn.
You must come home at once. There are heaps of letters here for
you, but I dare not send them on, as goodness only knows where
you may be. I do wish you would remember to leave an address. I
send this to your rooms, in case you have had the forethought
to instruct your charwoman to send your letters on to you. It
is a most handsome fortune, and I am too happy about your
accession to it to scold you as you deserve, but I hope this
will be a lesson to you to leave an address when next you go
away. Come home at once.--Your loving Mother,

"MARGARET SEFTON.

"_P.S._--It is the maddest will; everything divided evenly
between you two except the house and estate. The will says you
and your cousin Selwyn are to meet there on the 1st September
following his death, in presence of the family, and decide
which of you is to have the house. If you can't agree, it's to
be presented to the county for a lunatic asylum. I should think
so! He was always so eccentric. The one who doesn't have the
house, etc., gets L20,000 extra. Of course you will choose
_that_.

"_P.P.S._--Be sure to bring your under-shirts with you--the air
here is very keen of an evening."

I opened both the windows and lit a pipe. Sefton Manor, that gorgeous
old place,--I knew its picture in Hasted, cradle of our race, and so
on--and a big fortune. I hoped my cousin Selwyn would want the L20