“No!” whispered Blanche, to the General’s inexpressible relief, who cooled down into a prolonged _whew_, like the escape of steam from a safety-valve; but it was rather difficult to say it, he seemed so sorry and so patient and considerate. “Do you know, Uncle Baldwin, I never thought so highly of Captain Lacquers as I do to-night.” “Probably not, my dear,” grunted the General, “you never knew before he thought so highly of you. But, Blanche, as we are here, and--and it’s not very late--zounds! they’ve put that clock on again--well, dear, I too have got something to tell you; but mine, I am sorry to say, is bad news. Prepare yourself, my dear Blanche. I’m sure you will bear it well, my little pet, and as long as I have a roof over my head you will have a home; but, in short, it’s no use mincing the matter, Blanche, you’re not an heiress after all--you won’t have a sixpence beyond what I can leave you, and that’s little enough, heaven knows. They’ve found your mother’s will, my dear, and a most unfair and unreasonable will it is; but still, my pretty Blanche, it makes you a penniless young lady, after all!” “Is that the worst?” answered Blanche, looking up with an air of immense relief, though she had turned deadly pale; “is that all, Uncle Baldwin? dear me, I’m not worse off than half the other girls I know. We shall leave this house, I suppose,” she added, looking round at the ample room and its stately furniture, jumping at once to conclusions, as young ladies will do, “and we shall live entirely at Newton-Hollows, and I shall be there all the time my garden looks most beautiful; but we shan’t have to send away Mrs. Delaval, shall we?” (The General winced.) “And when will it all be settled? and when shall we go?” “Blanche, you’re a diamond,” said the General, his eyes filling with tears; “you’ve the pluck of ten women. You ought to have commanded the Kedjerees. Go to bed now, my dear, and to-morrow we’ll look things boldly in the face, and see what is best to be done.” So the General stumped off with his bed-candle, more than ever doating on his niece, more than ever persuaded that she inherited her sterling qualities from his side of the house, and not from that “poor, foolish old Kettering,” as he called him, and more than ever indignant with all the young men of his acquaintance, except Lacquers, for not being on their knees to Blanche. “They’ve no energy; they’ve no devotion; zounds! they’ve no chivalry amongst ’em--none whatever! If I was such a fellow as any one of these, ’gad, I’d go to bed and never get up again;” with which soliloquy the General proceeded to divest himself of his ball-going attire, and prepared for his refuge from all the ills of life.