'But you are a little deaf, dear uncle.'
'D—n it, don't say that, Roland—I am fit for service yet!'
'Well, she has not interfered with my allowance as yet.'
'Allowance!' exclaimed Sir Harry, smiting the table with his hand; 'why the devil should you be restricted to one at all?'
'If—I am very ignorant in law, uncle—but if under this will she has the life-rent——'
'More than that, I tell you.'
'I can scarcely believe it; and she has not meddled with the allowance of dear little Maude.'
'She may cut off your sister's income and yours too at any moment, Roland!'
'Well, I suppose if the worst comes to the worst,' said the latter, with a kind of bitter laugh, while still hoping against hope, 'I shall have to send in my papers and volunteer as a trooper for one of these Cape corps in Bechuanaland or the Transvaal.'
'Oh, Roland, don't think of such things,' said Hester, as with tenderness in her eyes she looked up at him for a moment, and then resumed her work.