“It is from Peveril,” said Mr. Hamlyn, producing the letter he had spoken of from his pocket.  “The lease he took of Peacock’s Range is not yet out, but he can resign it now if he pleases, and he would be glad to do so.  He and his wife would rather remain abroad, it seems, than return home.”

“Yes.  Well?”

“Well, he writes to me to ask whether he can resign it; or whether I must hold him to the promise he made me—­that I should rent the house to the end of the term.  I mean the end of the lease; the term he holds it for.”

“Why does he want to resign it?  Why can’t things go on as at present?”

“I gather from an allusion he makes, though he does not explicitly state it, that Mr. Carradyne wishes to have the place in his own hands.  What am I to say to Peveril, Eliza?”

“Say!  Why, that you must hold him to his promise; that we cannot give up the house yet.  A pretty thing if I had no place to go down to at will in my own county!”

“So far as I am concerned, Eliza, I would prefer to stay away from the county—­if your father is to continue to treat me in the way he does.  Remember what it was in the summer.  I think we are very well here.”

“Now, Philip, I have said.  I do not intend to release our hold on Peacock’s Range.  My father will be reconciled to you in time as he is to me.”

“I wonder what Harry Carradyne can want it for?” mused Philip Hamlyn, bowing to the imperative decision of his better half.

“To live in it, I should say.  He would like to show his resentment to papa by turning his back on Leet Hall.  It can’t be for anything else.”

“What cause of resentment has he?  He sent for him home and made him his heir.”

“That is the cause.  Papa has come to his senses and changed his mind.  It is our darling little Walter who is to be the heir of Leet Hall, Philip—­and papa has so informed Harry Carradyne.”

Philip Hamlyn gazed at his wife in doubt.  He had never heard a word of this; instinct had kept her silent.

“I hope not,” he emphatically said, breaking the silence.

“You hope not?”

“Walter shall never inherit Leet Hall with my consent, Eliza.  Harry Carradyne is the right and proper heir, and no child of mine, as I hope, must or shall displace him.”

Mrs. Hamlyn treated her husband to one of her worst looks, telling of contempt as well as of power; but she did not speak.

“Listen, Eliza.  I cannot bear injustice, and I do not believe it ever prospers in the long run.  Were your father to bequeath—­my dear, I beg of you to listen to me!—­to bequeath his estates to little Walter, to the exclusion of the true heir, rely upon it the bequest would never bring him good.  In some way or other it would not serve him.  Money diverted by injustice from its natural and just channel does not carry a blessing with it.  I have noted this over and over again in going through life.”