'In all this you say nothing of love,' said Hester, with a curl on her sweet red lip, 'and without it all these things were worthless.' 'And without them it were useless,' replied the mercenary little beauty, with a perfect coolness that kindled an emotion of something akin to contempt rather than amusement in the breast of Hester. 'As Claude Melnotte says, after describing his palace by the Lake of Como, "Dost like the picture?"' asked Annot laughingly. 'Not at all from your point of view,' replied Hester, a little wearily. 'The diamond and opal suite, to be the gift of the bridegroom's brother-officers, has reference, I suppose----' 'To Roland, of course.' 'Poor Roland!' said Hester, with a genuine sigh. 'Why do you adopt that tone in regard to him?' asked Annot, her eyes of bright hazel green dilating with surprise. 'For reasons of which, I fear, you know nothing,' replied Hester, unable to repress a growing repugnance for the questioner. 'But I surely must know them in time?' 'Perhaps.' 'There is no "perhaps" in the matter,' said Annot pettishly; 'what do you mean, Hester--speak?' 'Is it possible,' said the other with extreme reluctance, 'that you have never heard of the terms of his father's will?' 'Scotch-like, you reply to one question by another. Well, what will?' 'His father's most singular and unjust one.' 'No.' 'Not even from Roland?' 'No--never, I say!' 'Most strange!' 'You know that I cannot speak of it.' 'Of course not.' 'But mamma may. This estate of Earlshaugh----' 'Is the property by gift of his father to his second wife----' 'That grim woman, Deborah Sharpe?' 'Yes--to have and to hold--I don't know the exact terms.' 'How should you?' said Annot incredulously. 'You cannot be much of a lawyer, Hester!' 'Of course not--but this is not a lawyer's question now.' 'Why?' 'The will is an accomplished fact. Roland, when abroad, may have been misled--nay, has been misled--by words and delusive hopes; but these the family agent will shatter when he shows him the truth.'