She remained there for over an hour, and during the hour the conversation became very animated.  Colonel Askerton’s assumed gravity had given way to ordinary eagerness, during which he walked about the room in the vehemence of his argument; and Clara, in answering him, had also put forth all her strength.  She had expected that he also was going to speak to her on the propriety of her going to Norfolk; but he made no allusion to that subject, although all that he did say was founded on Will Belton’s letter to himself.  Belton, in speaking of the cottage, had told Colonel Askerton that Miss Amedroz would be his future landlord, and had then gone on to explain that it was his, Belton’s, intention to destroy the entail, and allow the property to descend from the father to the daughter.  ’As Miss Amedroz is with you now,’ he said, ’may I beg you to take the trouble to explain the matter to her at length, and to make her understand that the estate is now, at this moment, in fact her own.  Her possession of it does not depend on any act of hers or, indeed, upon her own will or wish in the matter.’  On this subject Colonel Askerton had argued, using all his skill to make Clara in truth perceive that she was her father’s heiress through the generosity undoubtedly of her cousin and that she had no alternative but to assume the possession which was thus thrust upon her.

And so eloquent was the colonel that Clara was staggered, though she was not convinced.  ‘It is quite impossible,’ she said.  ’Though he may be able to make it over to me, I can give it back again.’

’I think not.  In such a matter as this a lady in your position can only be guided by her natural advisers her father’s lawyer and other family friends.’

’I don’t know why a young lady should be in any way different from an old gentleman.’

’But an old gentleman would not hesitate under such circumstances.  The entail in itself was a cruelty, and the operation of it on your poor brother’s death was additionally cruel.’

‘It is cruel that any one should be poor,’ argued Clara; ’but that does not take away the right of a rich man to his property.’

There was much more of this sort said between them, till Clara was at any rate convinced that Colonel Askerton believed that she ought to be the owner of the property.  And then at last he ventured upon another argument which soon drove Clara out of the room.  ’There is, I believe, one way in which it can all be made right,’ said he.

’What way? ’said Clara, forgetting in her eagerness the obviousness of the mode which her companion was about to point out.

‘Of course, I know nothing of this myself,’ he said smiling; ’but Mary thinks that you and your cousin might arrange it between you if you were together.’

‘You must not listen to what she says about that, Colonel Askerton.’  ’Must I not?  Well; I will not listen to more than I can help; but Mary, as you know, is a persistent talker.  I, at any rate, have done my commission.’  Then Clara left him and was alone for what remained of the afternoon.