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”
    “ A part of it is not to be made public for a year. I told Fenwick about it. ”
    She then proceeded to tell Jane the same thing, not revealing the identity of the mysterious inheritor, and moving rather vaguely over the phrase “ providing certain conditions are met. ”
    “ What conditions? ” Jane asked.
    “Wills are written in legal mumbo jumbo with a hundred heretofores and whereases. One hardly knows what it all means. You know what lawyers are. ”
    The talk left her hungry, and she called for some bread and butter to tide her over until luncheon. While she devoured two slices of bread, she continued gossiping.
    “ Fenwick could be of some use to us, if we could ingratiate him. I believe I shall invite him to dinner. ”
    Jane was happy to hear it. She didn ’ t trust Fenwick an inch, but she was exhilarated at the prospect of seeing him again. He had come down off his high horse, just before he left. She wondered how he would behave on their next meeting.
    “ You can hardly invite Fenwick and not the others, ” she said. “ It would look so very odd. ”
    “ I shall invite them all, including Lady Sykes — and pray that she doesn ’ t come, but goes back to London, the pest. ”
    The only other thing of interest that occurred at Wildercliffe that day was the discovery of a black pearl cravat pin on the table near where Swann had been sitting. This confirmed that he had no interest whatsoever in a memento from Pargeter. In the afternoon Fay had a nap and Jane went for a long walk about the estate. It offered enough interest that she scarcely gave a thought to Miss Prism’s Academy, except to pity her friend Harriet Stowe and the other schoolmistresses who were still there, slaving their lives away.
    It seemed lonesomeness was not going to be as much of a problem as she had feared. Already they had had two gentlemen calling. She was going out with Mr. Swann on the morrow, and now there was talk of a dinner party. She turned her mind to the vexing problem of what she could wear to impress the toplofty Lord Fenwick.
    * * * *
    At Swann Hall, Lady Sykes was waiting on nettles to hear an account of the visit. “ Well, what did you learn? ” she demanded of Fenwick.
    “ We were looking for mares ’ nests, ” he scoffed. “ There is nothing amiss with Lady Pargeter. I stopped to visit Lord Malton on the way home. He verified what Lady Pargeter told me. In fact, he was one of the witnesses at the wedding. ”
    Fenwick explained how the wedding had come about. When this did not appease Lady Sykes, he mentioned the peculiar terms of the will.
    “ Rubbish! ” the dame declared. “ Whoever heard of a will not being read in full for a year? It is easy for her to say the estate will revert to Nigel. ”
    “ That is not what she said. It will not revert to Nigel, but to someone in Pargeter ’ s family. ”
    “ Who else could it be? Much good it will do poor Nigel. The housekeeper is in her early forties. She might last half a century, racking up the income all the while. She will have a veritable fortune to leave to her niece. If Nigel dies young like his papa, he will never see a sou of his money. ”
    “ I would not encourage Nigel to believe the estate will ever be his, ” Fenwick said, and was completely ignored.
    “ It is a hum to calm our ruffled feathers, ” Phoebe declared. “ She is breaking the news by degrees. In a year we will learn the whole has been left to the housekeeper with no strings attached. ”
    “ There is nothing you can do about it, ” Fenwick said. “ She was legally married to Pargeter. The estate was not entailed. He was not mad, for Malton visited him the day he died, and Pargeter had a business discussion with his bailiff later that same day. The will is legal. Accept it, Phoebe, and make the best of it. You are only throwing good money after bad by proceeding with Belton. ”
    Lady Sykes had a keen aversion to wasting any kind of money, good or bad. She was