"My mother. It had belonged to her father, and to his father before him. She gave it to Anthony before she died, telling him it was an heirloom and charging him ever to wear it in remembrance of her."
"Then I think it should now be worn by you, George; but settle it with Madame Guise as you will. Who was your mother? An Englishwoman?"
"Oh yes. Miss North. It was her brother, Mr. George North, who stood godfather to me, and who left me all his private fortune. He was in the silk mills, and died quite a young man and a bachelor."
"Ay," said Mr. Castlemaine, rather dreamily, his thoughts back with his brother Basil, "you have money, George, I know. Is it much?"
"It is altogether nearly a thousand pounds a year. Some of it came to me from my father."
"And Ethel has about seven hundred a year," remarked Mr. Castlemaine. "And there will be the revenues of Greylands' Rest: twelve hundred, or thereabouts. You will be a rich man, George, and can keep up as much state as you please here."
It will be seen by this that George Castlemaine had asked his uncle for Ethel. Mr. Castlemaine was surprised: he had not entertained the remotest suspicion of any attachment between them: but he gave a hearty consent. He had liked George; he was fond of Ethel; and the match for her was excellent.
"I would just as soon not take her away with us when we leave, except as a temporary arrangement," was his candid avowal. "Mrs. Castlemaine does not make her home too pleasant; she will be happier with you."
"Oh, I hope so!" was the hasty, fervent answer.
The conference, which had been a long one, broke up. George went away to his interview of explanation with Madame Guise, who as yet knew nothing; and the Master of Greylands summoned his wife to the room. He informed her briefly of the state of things generally: telling her who George North was, and of Anthony's death: using the version that George had suggested, and keeping himself, as to the past, on neutral ground altogether. She was not to know even as much as Madame Guise, but to understand, as the world would, that her husband only learnt the truth now. Now that poor Harry was gone, he said, George came next in the succession to Greylands' Rest, and he (Mr. Castlemaine) had resolved to give it up to him at once. Mrs. Castlemaine, who did not feel at all inclined to quit Greylands' Rest, went into a state of rebellions indignation forthwith, and retorted with the remark already given.