"Very kind and generous of you, my child; but he would not believe it possible, and I must say to you that, after what has passed, you would not be doing your duty to the dead by helping your uncle to this extent. Kate, my dear, since I have been talking to you it has occurred to me that there is but one way out of your difficulty." "Yes, what is it?" she cried eagerly. "Of course, you cannot marry your cousin?" "Mr Garstang!" she cried indignantly. "It is impossible, of course; and if you stay here you will have to submit to endless persecution and annoyance, such as a highly strung, sensitive girl like you are will be unable to combat." "You do not know me yet, Mr Garstang." "Indeed? I think I do, as I have known you from a child. You are mentally strong, but you have been, and under these circumstances will be, further sapped by sickness, and it would need superhuman power to win in so cruel a fight. You must not risk it, Kate, my child. You must go." "Yes, I feel that I know I must go, but how can I? You, as a lawyer, should know." "A long and costly litigation, or an appeal to the Court of Chancery might save you, and a judge make an order traversing your father's will, but I should shrink from such a course; I know too well the uncertainties of the law." "Then your idea for extricating me from my difficult position is of no value," she said, despairingly. "You have not heard it yet," he said, "because I almost shrink from proposing such a thing to your father's child." "Tell me what it is," she said firmly. "You desire me to?" "Of course." "It is this--a simple and effective way of checkmating one who has proved himself unworthy. My idea was that you should transfer the guardianship to me." "Willingly, Mr Garstang; but can it be done?" "It must and shall be done if you are willing, my child," he said firmly, "but it would necessitate a very unusual, a bold and immediate step oh your part." "What is that, Mr Garstang?" she said quietly. "You would have to place yourself under my guardianship at once." "At once?" she said, starting slightly. "Yes. Think for yourself. It could not be done slowly and legally, for at the first suspicion that I was acting against him, James Wilton would place you immediately completely out of my reach, and take ample care that I had no further communication with you." "Yes," she said quietly; "he would." "Yes," he said, repeating her words, and speaking in a slow, passionless, judicial way; "if the thing were deferred, or if he were besieged, he would redouble his pressure. Kate, my dear, that was my idea; but it must sound almost as mad to you as it does to me. Yes, it is impossible; I ought not to have proposed such a thing, and yet I can not find it in my heart to give up any chance of rescuing you from your terrible position." He was silent, and she stood there gazing straight before her for a few moments before turning her eyes upon his.