Whether the prospect of such longevity was so agreeable to the young gentleman, I cannot say, but he winced a little under the remark, and said, half moodily: “This old cove here ought to be thinking of that same journey. It’s slow work waiting for the death of a man, after he passes seventy-four or five. The assurance offices know that much.” “It’s to be all yours, Master Dolly, ain’t it?” asked the man, in a coaxing sort of tone. “Every stone of it, and every stick that the old boy doesn’t manage to cut down in the mean while.” “You’ll never live here, Master Dolly? You’d not stand this lonesome place a week!” “I don’t think I should, Tom. I might come down for the shooting, and bring some fellows with me, or I might run down for a few weeks ‘on the sly.’ By the way, have you found out who she is?” “No, Sir; they’re as close as wax. Mrs. Simcox, I see, knows all about it, but she won’t say a word beyond the ‘young lady as is my master’s ward.’” “Is she French or English?” “Can’t say, Sir; but I suspect she’s French.” “Is she his daughter?” “At times I do think she is; but she ain’t like him, Sir, not a bit!” “But why can’t you find out where she came from when she came here, who and what her friends, if she has any?” “It’s clear impossible, Sir. They has all got orders to know nothing, and it’s nothing they know.” “Did you try them with a ‘tip,’ Tom?” “No use, Sir. In a town-house you can always do that, but these savages--they are just savages--in the country, think they are bound to their masters, body and soul.” “What a mistake, Tom,” said the other, with a twinkle of the eye. “Well, Sir, it’s a mistake when a man does not love his master;” and Mr. Fisk turned away and drew his hand across his eyes. The grin upon young Mr. Ladarelle’s face was not a very flattering commentary on this show of feeling, but he did not speak for some minutes. At last he said: “He presented her to my governor as Mademoiselle O’Hara, saying, ‘My ward;’ and she received us as calmly as if she owned the place. That’s what puzzles _me_, Tom--her cool self-possession.” “It ain’t nat’ral, Sir; it ain’t, indeed!” “It is the sort of manner a man’s wife might have, and not even that if she were very young. It was as good as a play to see how she treated the governor as if he had never been here before, and that everything was new to him!” Mr. Fisk rubbed his hands and laughed heartily at this joke. “And as for myself, she scarcely condescended to acknowledge me.” “Warn’t that too imperent, Sir?” “It was not gracious, at all events, but we’ll know more of each other before the week is over. You’ll see.” “That’s pretty sartain, Sir.” “Not but I’d rather you could have found out something like a clue to her first of all.”