“You shock me,” said the old clergyman. “Can that indeed be true?”
“I tell you, sir,” said Lionel, “that this is the first time I ever heard of any such wish having been expressed by my grandfather. Two months ago I had no more expectation than you had of ever coming into the Park Newton property. My cousin Kester was always looked upon as the heir.”
“He was, greatly to my surprise, knowing what I knew. Your uncle adopted him and brought him up as his own son.”
“And, had it not been for some mysterious quarrel that took place between my uncle and my cousin, Kester St. George would undoubtedly at this moment have been the owner of Park Newton.”
“What you say seems only too probable,” said the vicar. “And yet I always looked upon Mr. St. George as one of the most conscientious of men, as he was, undoubtedly, one of the most charitable.”
“A pity that in this case his charity did not begin nearer home,” said Lionel. “That must have been a terrible quarrel,” he added presently, “which could induce my uncle to alter the determination of a lifetime, and leave the property away from my cousin.”
“True,” said the vicar. “I have often wondered of what nature it could be. But Mr. St. George never spoke of it to any one. He was a very close man in many ways.”
There was much food for thought in what Mr. Wharton had just told Lionel. “My grandfather intended me to have Park Newton, and I’ve got it,” he said to himself, after the vicar had gone. “But it was also his wish that Kester should have two or three thousand a year out of the estate. I’ll write to Perrins to know how it can be done.”
Mr. Perrins had gone back to London a few hours previously. Lionel wrote to him by that night’s post. Next morning but one he had the following answer: “By the terms, of your uncle’s will and codicil you have no power to make any such allowance out of the estate as the one suggested by you. You can, of course, make any allowance you may please, and to anybody, privately, and as a gift out of your own pocket; but it is not competent for you to burden the estate with any charge of such a nature.”
Would his cousin accept three thousand a year from him as a gift? It was a delicate proposition to put to a man circumstanced as was Kester St. George.