"Linda Lady Blanchemain presents her compliments to Lord Blanchemain of Ventmere, and begs to apprise him that she has lately had the pleasure of meeting his lordship's nephew John, and has discovered to her amazement that his lordship makes him no allowance. This situation, for the heir to the barony of Blanchemain, is of course absurd, and must, Lady Blanchemain is sure, be due entirely to an oversight on his lordship's part. She ventures, therefore, with all respect, to bring it to his notice." So! Here sat a young man with plenty to think about; a young man, whose income, yesterday a bare six hundred, had sprung up over night to something near six thousand. Six thousand a year isn't opulence, if you like, but a young man possessing it can hardly look upon himself as quite empty-handed, either. This young man, however, had other things as well to think of. What of that embroidered handkerchief? What of those shrewd suspicions of Lady Blanchemain's? What of his miller's daughter? And there was another thing still. What of his proud old honest Spartan of an unimaginative uncle? He thought of him, and "Oh, the poor old boy," he cried. "Not for ten times the money would I have had the dear old woman write to him like that. How hard it must have hit him!" "M, D, and a princely crown," he reflected. "I wish I had an Almanach de Gotha." VI "Who was it said of some one that he dearly loved a lord?" Maria Dolores, her chin in the air, asked of Frau Brandt. "I do not know," Frau Brandt replied, knitting. "Well, at least, you know whether it would be possible for a man and wife to live luxuriously on sixpence a week. Would it?" pursued her tease. "You are well aware that it would not," said Frau Brandt. "How about six hundred pounds a year?" "Six hundred pounds--?" Frau Brandt computed. "That would be six thousand florins, no? It would depend upon their station in the world." "Well, suppose their station were about my station--and my lord's?" "You," said Frau Brandt, with a chuckle of contentment, swaying her white-bonneted head. "You would need twice that for your dress alone." "One could dress more simply," said Maria Dolores. "No," said Frau Brandt, her good eyes beaming, "you must always dress in the very finest that can be had." "But then," Maria Dolores asked with wistfulness, "what am I to do? For six hundred pounds is the total of his income." "You have, unless I am mistaken, an income of your own," Frau Brandt remarked. "Yes--but he won't let me use it," said Maria Dolores. "He? Who?" demanded Frau Brandt, bridling. "Who is there that dares to say let or not let to you? "My future husband," said Maria Dolores. "He has peculiar ideas of honour. He does not like the notion of marrying a woman who is richer than himself. So he will marry me only on the condition that I send my own fortune to be dropped in the middle of the sea." "What nonsense is this?" said Frau Brandt, composed.