Gaston had shaded his eyes with his hand, and he was watching Sir William’s face closely, out of curiosity chiefly. Sir William regarded the thing with hesitating humour. “Well, well, suppose so. The property was in the hands of a younger branch of the family then. There was no entail, as now.” “Wasn’t there?” said Gaston enigmatically. He was thinking of some phrases in a manuscript which he had found in this box. “Perhaps where these papers came from there are others,” he added. Sir William lifted his eyebrows ironically. “I hardly think so.” Gaston laughed, not wishing him to take the thing at all seriously. He continued airily: “It would be amusing if the property went with the title after all, wouldn’t it, sir?” Sir William got to his feet and said testily: “That should never be while I lived!” “Of course not, sir.” Sir William saw the bull, and laughed, heartily for him. They bade each other good-night. “I’ll have a look in the solicitor’s office all the same,” said Gaston to himself. CHAPTER X. HE COMES TO “THE WAKING OF THE FIRE” A few days afterwards Gaston joined a small party at Peppingham. Without any accent life was made easy for him. He was alone much, and yet, to himself, he seemed to have enough of company. The situation did not impose itself conspicuously. Delia gave him no especial reason to be vain. She had not an exceeding wit, but she had charm, and her talk was interesting to Gaston, who had come, for the first time, into somewhat intimate relations with an English girl. He was struck with her conventional delicacy and honour on one side, and the limitation of her ideas on the other. But with it all she had some slight touch of temperament which lifted her from the usual level. And just now her sprightliness was more marked than it had ever been. Her great hour seemed come to her. She knew that there had been talk among the elders, and what was meant by Gaston’s visit. Still, they were not much alone together. Gaston saw her mostly with others. Even a woman with a tender strain for a man knows what will serve for her ascendancy: the graciousness of her disposition, the occasional flash of her mother’s temper, and her sense of being superior to a situation--the gift of every well-bred English girl.