“Of course I do,” was the reply, spoken while Mrs. Croft swept along the Marina with her dress trailing about two yards on the ground behind her; “of course I do,” and her dark eyes looked over Heather scornfully; “people generally expect their godfathers to leave them something, do they not? and your godfather’s money is well worth finessing for. I commend your prudence; some persons might not think such conduct quite honourable, but that never seems to have occurred to you. Mr. Stewart has hitherto treated Mr. Croft as his heir. Now, however——” “Mr. Stewart’s affairs have not the slightest interest for me,” interrupted Heather, hastily. “Good morning!” and, without giving her companion time to utter another word, Mrs. Dudley turned and walked back along the Parade to the point where Lally was still engaged in animated conversation with her two gentlemen friends. “It is time for you to come in, my pet,” she said, descending one of the flights of wooden steps, and making her way with difficulty over the shingle to the sands. “If you see my sister, Mr. Stewart, would you kindly ask her to bring Leonard back? I do not like him to be out in the heat of the day. I do not think it is good for children to be on the shore when the sun has so much power.” “Now, they have had a quarrel,” decided Mr. Stewart, glancing along the Parade, where he descried Mrs. Aymescourt Croft wending her way homewards, solitary and stately, haughty and defiant. “I should like immensely to know what it is all about. There is something very decidedly amiss between my amiable niece and Mrs. Dudley.” “Your wife and our pretty friend do not seem able to stable their horses comfortably together,” he said to Mr. Croft, when Heather, who declined all offers both of companionship and of assistance, had borne Lally—bitterly protesting against such injustice—away. “How is it, do you think?” “My wife is jealous,” was the prompt reply. “Does she fancy you are smitten?” “No; but she thinks you are,” Mr. Croft answered. “She considers that Mrs. Dudley stands too good a chance of being favourably remembered in your will, for much cordial feeling to exist amongst us.” “And why the devil should I leave Mrs. Dudley sixpence?” asked Mr. Stewart. “What is she to me that I should bequeath anything to her, more than to the first stranger I meet on the Marina?”