Ida hesitated for a moment. She could not bring herself to tell even

Mr. Wordley of her father's painful habit of walking in his sleep.

"Yes," she said, "fairly well. Sometimes he is rather restless and

irritable as if he were worried. Has he anything to worry him, Mr.

Wordley--I mean anything more than usual?"

He did not answer, and she looked at him as if waiting for his reply.

"I was thinking of what you just said: that you were a big girl. So you

are, though you always seem to me like the little child I used to

nurse. But the world rolls on and you have grown into a woman and I

ought to tell you the truth," he said, at last.

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"The truth!" she echoed, with a quick glance.

"Yes," he said, nodding gravely. "Does your father ever talk to you of

business, my dear? I know that you manage the house and the farm; ay,

and manage them well, but I don't know whether he ever tells you

anything about the business of the estate. I ask because I am in rather

an awkward position. When your father dismissed his steward I thought

he would consult me on the matters which the steward used to manage;

but he has not done so, and I am really more ignorant about his affairs

than anyone would credit, seeing that I have been the Herons' family

lawyer--I and mine--since, well, say, since the Flood." "No; my father

tells me nothing," said Ida. "Is there anything the matter, is there

anything I should know?"

He looked at her gravely, compassionately.

"My dear, I think there is," he said. "If you had a brother or any

relative near you I would not worry you, would not tell you. But you

have none, you are quite alone, you see."

"Quite alone," she echoed. And then she blushed, as she remembered

Stafford, and that she was no longer alone in the world.

"And so I think you ought to be told that your father's affairs

are--are not as satisfactory as they should be."

"I know that we are very poor," said Ida in a low voice.

"Ah, yes," he said. "And so are a great many of the landed gentry

nowadays; but they still struggle on, and I had hope that by some

stroke of good luck I might have helped your father to struggle on and

perhaps save something, make some provision, for you. But, my dear--See

now! I am going to treat you as if you were indeed a woman; and you

will be brave, I know, for you are a Heron, and a Heron--it sounds like

a paradox!--has never shown the white feather--your father's affairs

have been growing worse lately, I am afraid. You know that the estate

is encumbered, that the entail was cut off so that you might inherit;

but advantage has been taken of the cutting off the entail to raise

fresh loans since the steward was dismissed and I have been ignorant of

your father's business matters. I came to-day to tell him that the

interest of the heaviest mortgage was long overdue, and that the

mortgagee, who says that he has applied several times, is threatening

foreclosure. I felt quite sure that I should get the money from your

father this morning, but he has put me off and makes some difficulty.

He made a rambling statement, almost incoherent, which I did not

understand, though, to be sure, I listened very intently, and from a

word or two he incautiously let drop, I am afraid that--"




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