“Ho! ho!” laughed Guy, with malicious glee.
“If you only knew what I know, you wouldn’t crow quite so loud. It’s a splendid joke.”
There was something in this that attracted Hector’s attention, though he was not disposed to attach much importance to what Guy said.
“If I only knew what you know!” he repeated.
“Yes; that’s what I said.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll know it soon enough, and I can tell you one thing, it’ll surprise you. It’ll take down your pride a peg or two.”
Hector stared at his cousin in unaffected surprise. What could Guy possibly mean? Had his father perhaps made a will, and left the estate to some one else—his uncle, for example? Was this the meaning of Guy’s malicious mirth?
“I don’t know to what you refer,” he said; “but if it’s anything that is of importance to me, I ought to know it. What is it?”
“Go and ask father,” said Guy, with a tantalizing grin.