“Ask him to come up.  It will be a terrible blow to him.  This place has been as much to him as to any of us, if not more.”

“Mother, how brave you are!” cried Jock.

“I have known it longer than you have, my dear.  Besides, the mere loss is nothing compared with that which led to it.  The worst of it is the overthrow of all your prospects, my dear fellow.”

“Oh,” said Jock, brightly, “it only means that we have something and somebody to work for now;” and he threw his arms round her waist and kissed her.

“Oh! my dear, dear boy, don’t!  Don’t upset me, or your uncle will think it is about this.”

“And don’t, for Heaven’s sake, talk as if it were all up with us,” cried Bobus.

By this time the Colonel’s ponderous tread was near, and Caroline met him with an apology for giving him the trouble of the ascent, but said that she had wanted to see him in private.

“Is this in private?” asked the Colonel, looking at the five young people.

“Yes.  They have a right to know all.  Here it is, Robert.”

He sat down, deliberately put on his spectacles, took the will, read it once, and groaned, read it twice, and groaned more deeply, and then said—-

“My poor dear sister!  This is a bad business! a severe reverse! a very severe reverse!”

“He has hit on his catch-word,” thought Caroline, and Jock’s arm still round her gave a little pressure, as if the thought had occurred to him.  The moment of amusement gave a cheerfulness to her voice as she said—-

“We have been doing sad injustice all this time; that is the worst of it.  For the rest, we shall be no worse off than we were before.”

“It will be in Allen’s power to make up to you a good deal.  That is a fortunate arrangement, but I am afraid it cannot take place till the girl is of age.”

“You are all in such haste,” said Bobus.  “It would take a good deal to make me accept such an informal scrap as this.  No doubt one could drive a coach and horses through it.”

“That would not lessen the injustice,” said his mother.

“Could there not be a compromise?” said Allen.

“That is nonsense,” said his uncle.  “Either this will stand, or that, and I am afraid this is the later.  April 18th.  Was that the time of that absurd practical joke of yours?”

“Too true,” said Allen.  “You recollect the old brute said I should remember it.”

“Witnesses—-?  There’s Gomez, the servant who was drowned on his way out after his dismissal—-Elizabeth Brook-—is it-—servant. -—Who is to find her out?”

“Richards may know.”

“It is not our business to hunt up the witnesses.  That’s the look-out of the other party,” said Bobus impatiently.

“You don’t suppose I mean to contest it?” said his mother.  “It is bad enough to go on as we have been doing these eight years.  I only want to know what is right and truth, and if this be a real will.”