“You draw a flattering picture of me, I must say.”

“Not at all, only a true one.”

“Well, if I am all you say, how is it that you are prepared to allow your daughter to marry me at all?”

“I will tell you; because the rights of property should take precedence of the interests of a single individual.  Because my father and you between you cozened me out of my lawful own, and this is the only way that I see of coming by it again.”

“What does it matter? in any case after your death the land will come back to Angela and her children.”

“No, George, it will not; if ever the Isleworth estates come into my hands, they shall not pass again to any child of yours.”

“What would you do with them, then?”

“Marry, and get children of my own.”

George whistled.

“Well, I must say that your intentions are amiable, but you have not got the estates yet, my dear cousin.”

“No, and never shall have, most likely; but let us come to the point.  Although I do not approve of your advances, I am willing to waive my objections and accept you as a son-in-law, if you can win Angela’s consent, provided that before the marriage you consent to give me clear transfer, at a price, of all the Isleworth estates, with the exception of the mansion and the pleasure-grounds.”

“Very good; but now about the price.  That is the real point.”

They had taken a path that ran down through the shrubberies to the side of the lake, and then turned up towards Caresfoot’s Staff.  Before answering George’s remark, Philip proposed that they should sit down, and, suiting the action to the word, placed himself upon the trunk of a fallen tree that lay by the water’s edge, just outside the spread of the branches of the great oak, and commanding a view of the area beneath them.

“The moon will come out again presently,” he said, when George had followed his example.  “She has got behind that thunder-cloud.  Ah!” as a bright flash of lightning passed from heaven to earth, “I thought that we should get a storm; it will be here in half an hour.”

All this Philip said to gain time; he had not quite made up his mind what price to offer.

“Never mind the lightning.  What do you offer for the property, inclusive of timber, and with all improvements—­just as it stands, in short.”

“One hundred thousand pounds cash,” said Philip, deliberately.

George sprang from his seat, and sat down again before he answered.

“Do you think that I am drunk, or a fool, that you come to me with such a ridiculous offer?  Why, the probate valuation was two hundred thousand, and that was very low.”

“I offer one hundred thousand, and am willing to settle thirty thousand absolutely on the girl should she marry you, and twenty thousand more on my death.  That is my offer—­take it, or leave it.”

“Talk sense, man; your terms are preposterous.”