"And you?" asked Dorinda, apprehensively.
Rupert rested his elbows on his knees, linked his hands loosely together, and looked down at the shadowy turf of the lawn. "I shall lose everything," he stated calmly. "I descend in the male line from Frederick through Henry Hendle and Charles Hendle. And, as Frederick was cut off by his father in favor of Walter's child, Eunice, I am an interloper and a fraud. If this will is found, and can be proved to be legal, Dorinda, I shall not have a penny. As things stand, your father is better off with his five hundred a year than I shall be. It is a very unpleasant position, as it stops our marriage."
"Oh, does it?" cried Dorinda, flaming up, "in what way?"
"Well, in the first place, your father would never agree to your marrying a pauper, and in the second the pauper could scarcely ask you to share his nothing a year."
"Darling,"--Dorinda drew closer to her lover and laid her cheek against his--"I will marry no one but you. I don't care what my father says."
"It is not of your father that I am thinking of, but of my honor," rejoined Rupert, slipping his arm round her waist and holding her tightly to him. "If we got married, how could I support you? I have no trade, and no profession, so the only thing that I could do to keep body and soul together is to enlist. I might emigrate certainly, but then your life as my wife would be as hard and impossible in the backwoods as it would be if you followed the drum along with me."
Dorinda sighed. "You take a very prosaic view of the position."
"In justice to you I must take a prosaic view. Romance is all very well, but without money romance means trouble and sordid cares."
"Yes," sighed the girl again; then added, after a pause. "And if the will is not found?"
"I shall keep my own," answered Rupert firmly. "It's no use my being a silly fool, and giving up what isn't proved not to be mine. But I am looking for the will, Dorinda, and if it comes to light, I shall hand it over to the family lawyers to be adjusted. And, of course, you may be certain that I shall take advantage of everything likely to prevent my losing The Big House and the income."