'Eh!' said Mr. Egremont. 'It is not entailed--worse luck; if it had been, I should not have been bound to dance attendance at the heels of such an old sinner as the General.' 'No, but it ought to go to the heir male, and keep in the old name. Think--there have been Egremonts at Bridgefield for four hundred years!' 'Very pretty talk, but how will it be with you, Miss. We shall have Fane, and I don't know how many more, coming after the scent of Bridgefield now,' he said with a heavy sigh, ending with a bitter 'Hang them all!' 'And welcome,' said Nuttie, answering the thought rather than the words. 'Father, I wanted to tell you--' 'You don't mean that any one has been after you at such a time as this!' he cried. 'It was before--I mean it was the evening when we were all so glad, before we began to be afraid.' 'The umbrella man! By Jove!' 'And now,' went on Nuttie, in spite of the explosion, 'he would hardly have ventured to go on with it but for this--I mean,' as her father gave a little laugh of his unpleasant sort, 'he said it would be the greatest possible relief, and make it all right for the property to go to the heir male.' 'Hein! You think so, do you? See how it will be when I come to talk to him! A shrewd fellow like that who got out of the Micklethwayte concern just in time. Catch him giving up a place like that, though he may humbug you.' 'Then you will see him, father?' 'If you turn him in on me, I can't help it. Bless me! umbrellas everywhere! And here you mean to turn me over to the mercies of that solemn idiot, Edsall. I should have been better off with poor Gregorio.' 'No, father; Mr. Dutton would not take me from you. We would both try all we could to make you comfortable.' 'Convert the old reprobate? Is that his dodge?' 'Don't, father,' for the sneering tone returned. 'Come now,' he added in a much more fatherly manner, for her voice had struck him. 'You don't mean that a well-looking girl like you, who could have her pick of all the swells in town, can really be smitten with a priggish old retired umbrella-monger like that. Why, he might be your father.' 'He has been getting younger ever since I knew him,' said Nuttie.