"Have you calculated, may I ask, to what this princely fortune you speak of amounts?" "Three or four hundred a year, sir, not including my pay; and the young lady herself is not penniless, for our cousins have resolved to leave her their property." "Our cousins leave a stranger their property!" exclaimed Sir Ralph. "It should be Julia's or yours; it came through the Castletons, and should return to them." "So it will, sir," said Harry, having, as he hoped, caught his father in a trap, "when May marries me." "I see how it is," observed the baronet, not noticing Harry's last remark. "Our sanctimonious cousins wish to get a husband for this girl they have picked up, and as they are not likely to meet any other young gentleman in the secluded way they live, they have entrapped you." "I assure you, sir, you do them great wrong," observed Harry, warmly. "I went to the house of my own accord, and I am sure it did not enter their heads that I should fall in love with their friend. I wish, sir, that you could see them and the lady you condemn. Possessing as you do so exquisite a taste in female beauty and refinement, I am sure you will admire her." "I may possibly call at the Miss Pembertons, because I wish to express my opinion of their conduct in the matter," said the baronet, wishing not to appear influenced by his son's remarks. "I may then see this girl who has caught you. I tell you that if she were as beautiful as Venus, nothing would alter my determination. May I ask, do you know who she is? Your mother has only spoken to me of her as the Miss Pembertons protege." Harry, feeling perfectly sure that should he answer the question his father would be still more adverse to his marriage, and would possibly express himself forcibly on the subject, replied-- "I wish, sir, that you would see her before I answer the last question. I wish you to judge her on her own merits, independent of all other considerations." Harry had maintained the conversation with a good deal of spirit, though he felt somewhat exhausted, when his father, turning to the table, began to write without apparently noticing him. While thus seated, his eye fell on the picture of his long lost uncle which hung next to Sir Reginald's. Though he had been often in the room, he had never particularly noticed it, for it was in a bad light, and the features were not distinct. A gleam of sunlight now coming into the room fell directly on it, and suddenly, as he gazed, a strange idea came into his mind. He thought, and thought. "Yes, the features and expression remind me much of what he was at the same age, and yet it must be fancy." Sir Ralph suddenly interrupted his reveries. "Harry," he said, "I do not wish to quarrel with your friend, that is not my way, but you will take an early opportunity of advising him to spend the remainder of his time on shore elsewhere." "But has Headland proposed to you for Julia?" asked Harry.