“I can only repeat what I have said already, that I was utterly ignorant of everything till I arrived at Baden; there I accidentally met Twining—”
“Spicer told me about it,” said she abruptly, as though it was not necessary to discuss any point conceded on both sides. “Your coming,” continued she, “was all the more eagerly looked for because it was necessary you should be, so far as possible, prepared for the suit we are threatened with; actions at law for ejectments on title are already announced, and great—the very greatest—inconvenience has resulted for want of formal instructions on your part.”
“Is the thing really serious, Georgy?” asked he, with an unfeigned anxiety of manner.
“If you only will take the trouble of reading Fordyce's two last letters,—they are very long, I confess, and somewhat difficult to understand,—you will at least see that his opinion is the reverse of favorable. In fact, he thinks the English estates are gone.”
“Oh, Georgy dearest! but you don't believe that?”
“The Irish barony and certain lands in Cork,” resumed she, calmly, “are not included in the demand they profess to make; nor, of course, have they any claim as to the estates purchased by Lord Lackington through Mr. Dunn.”
“But the title?”
“The Viscounty goes with the English property.”
“Good heavens! a title we have held undisturbed, unquestioned, since Edward the Third's time. I cannot bring myself to conceive it!”
“Great reverses of condition can be borne with dignity when they are not of our own incurring,” said she, with a stern and pointed significance.