He found the young man strolling listlessly about the grounds, attended by all his canine pets. There was no doubt as to the sincerity of the pleasure on Stuart’s face when he saw his cousin; but Sir Douglas was quick to notice the worn look and the gloom that almost immediately settled again on his features.
“How is the arm?” he asked, quietly.
“Mending rapidly,” Stuart answered. “I shall have it out of the splints in another fortnight.”
“Don’t hurry it,” said Sir Douglas, as he turned and strolled beside the young man; “it was a nasty fracture, you know.”
They walked on in silence until they reached a quiet spot, and then Sir Douglas halted.
“Stuart,” he said, “I have come down here on purpose to see you. I want you to give me a promise.”
“It is already given,” Stuart answered, roused from himself for a while, and stretching out his hand.
“You know that I have made you my heir, that I have willed all I possess to you with certain conditions.”
“Yes, I know,” Stuart answered, his face flushing a little. “Do not think me ungrateful if I say I wish it were not so. I do not want your property; I——”
“I am aware of that,” interrupted Sir Douglas, dryly. “If you had wanted it, you would not have had it. But it is not of that I want to speak; it is of the conditions. They are more to me than any fortune you could name.”