I was not quite so charmed with the compliment as he intended me to be; not taking very kindly to the idea of being 'brought to it,' as he termed it. So I replied with an air which I flattered myself was as careless as his own: 'I thought it as well to tell you that much, Mr Markham.'
'Quite as well, my dear young lady; saving of time, you know. I may now tell you that the person to whom you allude will be a considerable loser by the will I have brought down with me not being signed.'
'Is there no previous will, Mr Markham?'
'There have been several others. But Mr Farrar was a very careful man, and always destroyed an old will when he made a fresh one. He could never quite satisfy himself as to the exact provision to be made for the—person you have named, and was continually altering his mind, making the sum now greater now smaller.'
'Fortunately, Miss Farrar may be trusted to do all that is right.'
'No doubt a very sweet and good young lady; brought up with relations on the mother's side, I understand. I have had the pleasure of meeting her two or three times, and was much struck by her amiability.'
'It is something stronger and better than amiability, Mr Markham,' I returned. Someway that word always offended me with reference to Lilian.
'I am glad to hear it; though amiability has its attractions—for me.' After a few moments' contemplative glance at me, he added: 'It will be some comfort to her, by and by, perhaps to know that the—other is at least three or four years older than herself, and that the mother died whilst her child was young.'
I understood what he meant; 'the other,' as he termed her—he did not once allude to her by name—had been born before Mr Farrar's marriage to Lilian's mother.
'Thank you for telling me that, Mr Markham; it will be a comfort to Lilian.'