There was no sign of eager joy on the lad’s face, as if he realised the power and pleasure of having what to him must have seemed like a fortune.

“Mr. Gray said as how he had left me a matter of money.”

“Yes, he has left you two hundred pounds.”

“But I would rather have had him alive, my lady,” he burst out, sobbing as if his heart would break.

“My lad, I believe you.  We would rather have had our dead alive, would we not? and there is nothing in money that can comfort us for their loss.  But you know—­Mr. Gray has told you—­who has appointed all our times to die.  Mr. Horner was a good, just man; and has done well and kindly, both by me and you.  You perhaps do not know” (and now I understood what my lady had been making up her mind to say to Harry, all the time she was hesitating how to begin) “that Mr. Horner, at one time, meant to leave you a great deal more; probably all he had, with the exception of a legacy to his old clerk, Morrison.  But he knew that this estate—­on which my forefathers had lived for six hundred years—­was in debt, and that I had no immediate chance of paying off this debt; and yet he felt that it was a very sad thing for an old property like this to belong in part to those other men, who had lent the money.  You understand me, I think, my little man?” said she, questioning Harry’s face.

He had left off crying, and was trying to understand, with all his might and main; and I think he had got a pretty good general idea of the state of affairs; though probably he was puzzled by the term “the estate being in debt.”  But he was sufficiently interested to want my lady to go on; and he nodded his head at her, to signify this to her.

“So Mr. Horner took the money which he once meant to be yours, and has left the greater part of it to me, with the intention of helping me to pay off this debt I have told you about.  It will go a long way, and I shall try hard to save the rest, and then I shall die happy in leaving the land free from debt.”  She paused.  “But I shall not die happy in thinking of you.  I do not know if having money, or even having a great estate and much honour, is a good thing for any of us.  But God sees fit that some of us should be called to this condition, and it is our duty then to stand by our posts, like brave soldiers.  Now, Mr. Horner intended you to have this money first.  I shall only call it borrowing from you, Harry Gregson, if I take it and use it to pay off the debt.  I shall pay Mr. Gray interest on this money, because he is to stand as your guardian, as it were, till you come of age; and he must fix what ought to be done with it, so as to fit you for spending the principal rightly when the estate can repay it you.  I suppose, now, it will be right for you to be educated.  That will be another snare that will come with your money.  But have courage, Harry.  Both education and money may be used rightly, if we only pray against the temptations they bring with them.”