“I am sure, Colonel Brownlow, nothing can be handsomer than your conduct and Mrs. Brownlow’s,” said the old man; “but I should not like to take advantage of what she is good enough to say on the spur of the moment, till she has had more time to think it over.”

Therewith he took leave, while Caroline exclaimed—-

“I always say there is no truer gentleman in the county than old Mr. Gould.  I shall not be satisfied about that will till I have turned everything over and the partners have been written to.”

Again she was assured that she might set her mind at rest, and then the lawyers began to read a statement of the property which made Allen utter, under his breath, an emphatic “I say!” but his mother hardly took it in.  The heated room had affected her from the first, and the bewilderment of the tidings seemed almost to crush her; her heart and temples throbbed, her head ached violently, and while the final words respecting arrangements were passing between the Colonel and the lawyers, she was conscious only of a sickening sense of oppression, and a fear of committing the absurdity of fainting.

However, at last her brother-in-law put her into the brougham, desiring the boys to walk home, which they did very willingly, and with a wonderful air of lordship and possession.

“Well, Caroline,” said the Colonel, “I congratulate you on being the richest proprietor in the county.”

“O Robert, don’t!  If-—if,” said a suffocated voice, so miserable that he turned and took her hand kindly, saying—-

“My dear sister, this feeling is very-—it becomes you well.  This is a fearful responsibility.”

She could not answer.  She only leant back in the carriage, with closed eyes, and moaned—-

“Oh!  Joe!  Joe!”

“Indeed,” said his brother, greatly touched, “we want him more than ever.”

He did not try to talk any more to her, and when they reached the Pagoda, all she could do was to hurry up stairs, and, throwing off her bonnet, bury her face in the pillow.

Janet and her aunt both followed, the latter with kind and tender solicitude; but Caroline could bear nothing, and begged only to be left alone.

“Dear Ellen, it is very kind, but nothing does any good to these headaches.  Please don’t—-please leave me alone.”

They saw it was the only true kindness, and left her, after all attempts at bathing her forehead, or giving her sal volatile, proved only to molest her.  She lay on her bed, not able to think, and feeling nothing but the pain of her headache and a general weight and loneliness.

The first break was from Allen, who came in tenderly with a cup of coffee, saying that they thought her time was come for being ready for it.  His manner always did her good, and she sat up, pushed back her hair, smiled, took the cup, and thanked him lovingly.

“Uncle Robert is waiting to hear if you are better,” he said.