Gertrude silently shook her head.
"Because, as I then learned for the first time, my father's old bachelor brother, Mr. Mordaunt, was in the entail of the Deane, and in the very improbable event of there being no direct heir, that which has come to pass might come to pass. Do you understand what has happened now, my darling?"
"No," stammered Gertrude; "I--I do not."
"This is what has happened: my uncle, Mr. Mordaunt, is dead. I am his heir. My father took my mother's name in consequence of a family quarrel about his marriage, and, as you know, he died some years ago. I am the next in the entail, and Eleanor's dying without a child, makes me the possessor of the Deane. You now know why I did not ask you to be my wife when I believed you to be the lawful owner of the property; you now know how doubly joyfully I made you my wife when you lost it. Gertrude, my darling, I think you will prize your old name and your old home more than ever now that it is your husband who gives them back to you."
"I said it would all come right, Miss Gerty, didn't I, alanna?" exclaimed Rose Doran, as she in her turn caught Gertrude in her strong arms, and rocked her to and fro like an infant. "But I never thought it could come so right. Honest people and rogues have got their due in _this_ world, once in a way, anyhow."