"Don't go, Harry," he begged. "Well, Case," he addressed the barrister, "what is it this time? Must be something devilish important to bring you--how many thousand miles is it--into such a country as this." "It is important, Mr. Clare," stated the lawyer in his dry sing-song tones; "but my journey might have been avoided had you paid some attention to my letters." "Letters!" repeated Tim, opening his eyes. "My dear chap, I've had no letters." "Addressed as usual to your New York bankers." Tim laughed softly. "Where they are, with my last two quarters' allowance. I especially instructed them to send me no mail. One spends no money in this country." He paused, pulling his moustache. "I'm truly sorry you had to come so far," he continued, "and if your business is, as I suspect, the old one of inducing me to return to my dear uncle's arms, I assure you the mission will prove quite fruitless. Uncle Hillary and I could never live in the same county, let alone the same house." "And yet your uncle, the Viscount Mar, was very fond of you," ventured Case. "Your allowances--" "Oh, I grant you his generosity in MONEY affairs--" "He has continued that generosity in the terms of his will, and those terms I am here to communicate to you." "Uncle Hillary is dead!" cried Tim. "He passed away the sixteenth of last June." A slight pause ensued. "I am ready to hear you," said Tim soberly, at last. The barrister stooped and began to fumble with his bag. "No, not that!" cried Tim, with some impatience. "Tell me in your own words." The lawyer sat back and pressed his finger points together over his stomach. "The late Viscount," said he, "has been graciously pleased to leave you in fee simple his entire estate of Staghurst, together with its buildings, rentals, and privileges. This, besides the residential rights, amounts to some ten thousands pounds sterling per annum." "A little less than fifty thousand dollars a year, Harry," Tim shot over his shoulder at me. "There is one condition," put in the lawyer. "Oh, there is!" exclaimed Tim, his crest falling. "Well, knowing my Uncle Hillary--" "The condition is not extravagant," the lawyer hastily interposed. "It merely entails continued residence in England, and a minimum of nine months on the estate. This provision is absolute, and the estate reverts in its discontinuance, but may I be permitted to observe that the majority of men, myself among the number, are content to spend the most of their lives, not merely in the confines of a kingdom, but between the four walls of a room, for much less than ten thousand pounds a year. Also that England is not without its attractions for an Englishman, and that Staghurst is a country place of many possibilities." The Honourable Timothy had recovered from his first surprise. "And if the conditions are not complied with?" he inquired.