‘It is no bad news,’ was his greeting, as he put his arm round her trembling little figure and kissed her brow. ‘Only too good.’
‘Oh, is Mrs. Charles going to be married?’ the only hopeful contingency she could think of.
‘No,’ he said; ‘but, Mary, an extraordinary incident has taken place. I have inherited a property.’
‘A property? You are well off! Oh, thank God!’ and she clasped her hands, then held his. ‘At last! But what? How? Did you know?’
‘I knew of the connection, but that the family had never taken notice of my father. As to the rest I was entirely unprepared. My great-grandfather was a younger son of the first Lord Northmoor, but for some misconduct was cast off and proscribed. As you know, my grandfather and father devoted themselves to horses on the old farm, and made no pretensions to gentility. The elder branch of the family was once numerous, but it must have since
dwindled till the old lord was left with only a little grandson, who died of diphtheria a short time before his grandfather.’
‘Poor old man!’ began Mary. ‘Then—oh! do you mean that he died too?’
‘Yes; he was ill before, and this was a fatal blow. It appears that he was aware that I was next in the succession, and after the boy’s death had desired the solicitor to write to me as heir-at-law.’
‘Heir-at-law! Frank, do you mean that you are—’ she said, turning pale.
‘Baron Northmoor,’ he answered, ‘and you, my patient Mary, will be the baroness as soon as may be.’