"Yes," said I interrupting him; - "I know of what I speak."
"What can you mean, Miss Randolph?"
"I assure you, I mean exactly what I say. Pray take it so."
"But I do not understand you."
"Understand this, - that I shall be a penniless woman; or something very like it. I am making no jest. I am no heiress - as people think."
"But you confound me, Miss Randolph," he said, looking both curious and incredulous. "May I ask, what can be the explanation of your words? I know your Magnolia property - and it is, I assure you, a very noble one, and unencumbered. Nothing can hinder you from inheriting it - at some, we hope, of course, very distant day."
"Nevertheless," I said, "if I live to see that day, I shall be very poor, Mr. De Saussure."
"You will condescend to explain so extraordinary a statement?"
"Is not my word sufficient?"
"Pardon me, a thousand times; but you must see that I am in a difficulty. Against your word I have the word of two others - your mother and your brother, who both assure me of the contrary. May it not be, that they know best?"