“Just so; and yet—unless under most exceptional circumstances—unless what I hardly dare to hope should happen—she must, they must both leave it, at some not very distant date.”
The hesitation of Lord Trevlyn’s manner did not escape his sister.
“What do you mean?” she asked abruptly.
“I mean that I have been in correspondence lately with my heir, and that I expect him shortly at Trevlyn.”
“Your heir?”
“Yes, Randolph Trevlyn, one of the Warwickshire branch. The extinction of the Trevlyns at Drayton last year, you know, made him the next in succession. I made inquiries about him, and then entered into personal communication.”
Lady Diana looked keenly interested.
“What have you made out?”
“That he is very well spoken of everywhere as a young man of high character and excellent parts. He is wealthy—very wealthy, I believe, an only son, and enriched by a long minority. He is six or seven and twenty, and he is not married.”
Lady Diana’s eyes began to sparkle.