'Then you did not get my letter telling of the end of his illness?
You left home before it arrived.'
'You do not mean that uncle Strahan is dead?'
'It is a month ago, and more. But there is nothing to regret, mother.
He died perfectly happy.'
Mrs. Dallas passed over this sentence, which she did not like, and asked abruptly,—
'Then what were you doing at Kensington?'
'There was business. I have been obliged to give some time to it. You will be as much surprised as I was, to learn that my old uncle has left all he had in the world to me.'
'To you!' Mrs. Dallas did not utter a scream of delight, or embrace her son, or do anything that many women would have done in honour of the occasion; but her head took a little loftier set upon her shoulders, and in her cheeks rose a very pretty rosy flush.
'I am not surprised in the least,' she said. 'I do not see how he could have done anything else; but I did not know the old gentleman had so much sense, for all that. Is the property large?'
'Rather large.'
'My dear, I am very glad. That makes you independent at once. I do not know whether I ought to be glad of that; but you would never be led off from any line of conduct you thought fit to enter, by either having or wanting money.'