Gradually a vague idea formed itself, which by degrees assumed a definite shape. There would be something of poetic justice in benefiting the daughter of his old rival, the girl who bore his dead wife’s name. Had God granted him a daughter he would have named her Ruth too—Ruth Heritage. The name lingered in his mind, and the sweet memories flowed ones more over the grave ox the buried years. Ruth Heritage! Why was this gentle girl not his daughter? How fortunate Adrian had been. His wife lived still, and his daughter was the comfort of his age. He, the successful rival, had no wife and no child. Ruth Heritage! He sat in the window-seat of the library, looking across the quiet park to the lodge-gates, watching for his solicitor to come, and thinking over the will he was to make. And when, an hour later, his man of business was with him in close conference, his scheme was complete. There was an element of romance in it. The harshness to his own son was toned down by the halo of tenderness which it cast over an old love-story. The solicitor took his client’s instructions with professional lack of emotion. Family solicitors assist in the disinheritance of sons, the revelation of delicate domestic secrets, and carefully calculated schemes of a revenge which is to survive after death, with no more concern than the prompter feels as he watches the progress of a sensation drama. To him the scheme which may bring happiness or misery to hundreds represents so many folios of writing at so much a folio, and so many hours of professional work at so much an hour. Mr. Baggs, of the firm of Baggs & Carter, expressed no surprise at the fact that young George Heritage was to be disinherited, and did not even venture on a suggestion. He listened to his client’s instructions, and took them away to put them in a legal form. When the will was ready Squire Heritage signed it, sealed it, delivered it as his act and deed, and locked it up among his papers. It was a very simple will. It gave and bequeathed to Ruth Adrian, the daughter of his old rival John Adrian, the whole of his property, subject to a few legacies to old servants. But it made this proviso: that the said Ruth Adrian should assume the name of Heritage; and that in the event of her being married when the will came into operation, her husband should assume the name of Heritage. By this means the old name would continue to be identified with the place. Directly he had settled his worldly affairs, the squire relapsed once more into the gloomy inactivity from which he had only been aroused by the necessity of devising a scheme for the disposal of his property. But in spite of himself he kept thinking of the will and then of his absent son. He found himself picturing the days that should be after he had passed away and had no power to revoke his decision.