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sensibility I ought to overcome. And, you know, Ivo, my cousin is not quite up to the trick!’
    ‘So I should imagine.’
    ‘He is a very good sort of a man in his way, and he wishes to do just as he ought, but although he has always been the heir-at-law he was not bred to succeed Papa, and I fancy he never expected that it would come to that, so what with that, and Papa’s not liking him above half, he has never been put in the way of things here, and the truth is that he’s not fit to go !’
    ‘What is that to the purpose?’
    ‘Why, don’t you see? I shall be able to help him in a thousand ways, and to school him a little, and to see that all goes on as it should!’
    ‘Good God! Serena, take my word for it, you would be very ill advised to undertake anything of the sort!’
    ‘No, you mistake, Ivo! It was my cousin’s own suggestion! He told me that he hoped I would remain at Milverley, and put him in the way of things. Of course I would never do that , but I was a good deal touched, and I don’t doubt I can be just as useful to him if I live with Fanny, at the Dower House.’
    ‘Nor do I!’ he said, with the flash of a wry grin. ‘If your cousin wants information, let him seek it of your father’s agent!’
    ‘I daresay he will, but although Mr Morley is an excellent person, he was not bred here, as I was! It is not a part of him! Oh – ! I express myself so clumsily, but you must surely know what I mean!’
    ‘I do!’ he said. ‘It is precisely what I meant when I counselled you to remove from this neighbourhood!’

Three
    It had been the wish of both Fanny and Serena to have removed themselves from the great house as soon as possible after the funeral; but in the event several weeks elapsed before they at last found themselves installed at the Dower House. This house, which stood on the fringe of the park, and at no great distance from the little town of Quenbury, was a pretty, old-fashioned building, which had been inhabited until some fifteen months earlier by Serena’s elder, widowed aunt. Upon the death of this lady, it had been lived in by an old servant only, the various schemes for its occupation by this or that distant relative having all of them, from one cause or another, fallen through. It was discovered that some repairs and renovations were needed to make it properly habitable. Serena ordered these to be set in hand immediately, forgetting her altered status at Milverley. Her cousin found her in conference with the estate carpenter in the dismantled drawing room at the Dower House, and when they rode back to Milverley together startled her by saying: ‘I am glad you have given your orders to Staines. If I had not been so much occupied yesterday, I should have desired him to come up to see you, and to do whatever you may require of him.’
    She felt as though she had received a slap in the face, and gasped. ‘I beg your pardon!’
    He assured her very kindly that there was not the least need of apology, but she was deeply mortified, knowing herself to have erred in a way that was most likely to cause resentment. She tried to make further amends; he said that he perfectly understood; reiterated his wish that she would always look upon Milverley as her home; and left her with a strong desire to hasten the preparations for her departure.
    But even had the Dower House been ready for instant occupation, it would scarcely have been possible for her to have left Milverley. The task of assembling all her own and Fanny’s personal belongings proved to be a far more difficult and protracted one than she had anticipated. A thousand unforeseen difficulties arose; and she was constantly being applied to by her cousin for information and advice. She could not but pity him. He was a shy, unassuming man, more painstaking than able, who plainly found the unexpected change in his circumstances overwhelming. That he might succeed his cousin he had never regarded as more than a remote possibility; and