Word came back that Miss Menella was just going out riding; but on the return of a message that the visitors came from Mrs. Brownlow on important business, they were taken up-stairs to an ante-room.
They were three--Mr. Wakefield and Mr. Gould, and, to the great discontentment of the former, Mrs. Gould likewise. Fain would he have shaken her off; but as she truly said, who could deprive her of her rights as kinswoman, and wife to the young lady"s guardian?
After they had waited a few moments in the somewhat dingy surroundings of a house seldom used by its proper owners, Elvira entered in plumed hat and habit, a slender and exquisite little figure, but with a haughty twitch in her slim waist, superb indifference in the air of her little head, and a grasp of her coral-handled whip as if it were a defensive weapon, when Lisette flew up to offer an embrace with--
"Joy, joy, my dear child! Remember, I was the first to give you a hint."
"Good morning," said Elvira, with a little bend of her head, presenting to each the shapely tip of a gauntleted hand, but ignoring her uncle and aunt as far as was possible. "Is there anything that need detain me, Mr.
Wakefield? I am just going out with Miss Evelyn and Lord Fordham, and I cannot keep them waiting."
"Ah! it is you that will have to be waited for now, my sweet one," began Mrs. Gould.
"Here is a note from Mrs. Brownlow," said Mr. Wakefield, holding it to Elvira, who looked like anything but a sweet one. "I imagine it is to prepare you for the important disclosure I have to make."
A hot colour mounted in the fair cheek. Elvira tore open the letter and read--
"MY DEAR CHILD,--I can only ask your pardon for the unconscious wrong which I have so long been doing to you, and which shall be repaired as soon as the processes of the law render it possible for us to change places.
"Your ever loving,
"MOTHER CAREY."
"What does it all mean?" cried the bewildered girl.
"It means," said the lawyer, "that Mrs. Brownlow has discovered a will of the late Mr. Barnes more recent than that under which she inherited, naming you, Miss Elvira Menella, as the sole inheritrix."
"My dear child, let me be the first to congratulate you on your recovery of your rights," said Mrs. Gould, again proffering an embrace, but again the whip was interposed, while Elvira, with her eyes fixed on Mr.
Wakefield, asked "What?" so that he had to repeat the explanation.
"Then does it all belong to me?" she asked.
"Eventually it will, Miss Menella. You are sole heiress to your great uncle, though you cannot enter into possession till certain needful forms of law are gone through. Mrs. Brownlow offers no obstruction, but they cannot be rapid."
"All mine!" repeated Elvira, with childish exultation. "What fun! I must go and tell Sydney Evelyn."
"A few minutes more, Miss Menella," said Mr. Wakefield. "You ought to hear the terms of the will."
And he read it to her.
"I thought you told me it was to be mine. This is all you and uncle George."
"As your trustees."
"Oh, to manage as the Colonel does. You will give me all the money I ask you for. I want some pearls, and I must have that duck of a little Arab.
Uncle George, how soon can I have it?"
"We must go through the Probate Court," he began, but his wife interrupted--
"Ways and means will be forthcoming, my dear, though for my part I think it would be much better taste in Mrs. Brownlow to put you in possession at once."
"Mr. Wakefield explained, my dear," said her husband, "that, much as Mrs. Brownlow wishes to do so, she cannot; she has no power. It is her trustees."
"Oh yes, I know every excuse will be found for retaining the property as long as possible," said the lady.
"Then I shall have to wait ever so long," said the young lady. "And I do so want the Arab. It is a real love, and Allen would say so."
"I have another letter for you," said Mr. Wakefield, on hearing that name. "We will leave it with you. If you wish for further information, I would call immediately on receiving a line at my office."
Just then a message was brought from Mrs. Evelyn inviting Miss Menella"s friends to stay to luncheon. It incited Elvira, who knew neither awe nor manners, to run across the great drawing-room, leaving the doors open behind her, to the little morning-room, where sat Mrs. Evelyn, with Sydney, in her habit standing by the mantelpiece.
"Oh, Mrs. Evelyn," Elvira began, "it is Mr. Wakefield and my uncle and his wife. They have come to say it is all mine; Uncle Barnes left it all to me."
"So I hear from Mrs. Brownlow," said Mrs. Evelyn gravely.
"Oh, Elfie, I am so sorry for you. Don"t you hate it?" cried Sydney.
"Oh, but it is such fun! I can do everything I please," said the heiress.
"Yes, that"s the best part," said Sydney. "I do envy you the day when you give it all back to Allen."
That reminded Elvira to open the note, and as she read it her great eyes grew round.
"SWEETEST AND DEAREST,--How I have always loved, and always shall love you, you know full well. But these altered circ.u.mstances bring about what you have so often playfully wished. Say the word and you are free, no longer bound to me by anything that has pa.s.sed between us, though the very fibres of my heart and life are as much as ever entwined about you.
Honour bids my dissolution of our engagement, and I await your answer, though nothing can ever make me other than
"Your wholly devoted,
"ALLEN."
Mrs. Evelyn had been prepared by a letter from her friend for what was now taking place; Mr. Wakefield had likewise known the main purport of Allen"s note, and had allowed that Mr. Brownlow could not as a gentleman do otherwise than release the young lady; though he fully believed that it would be only as a matter of form, and that Elvira would not hear of breaking off. He had in fact spent much eloquence in persuading Mrs.
Brownlow to continue to take the charge of the heiress during the three years before her majority. Begun in generous affection by Allen long ago, the engagement seemed to the lawyer, as well as to others, an almost providential means of at least partial rest.i.tution.
He had meant Elvira to read her letter alone, but she had opened it before the two ladies, and her first exclamation was a startled, incredulous--
"Ha! What"s this? He says our engagement is dissolved."
"He is of course bound to set you free, my dear," said Mrs. Evelyn, "but it only depends on yourself."
"Oh! and I shall tease him well first," cried Elvira, her face lighting up with fun and mischief. "He was so tiresome and did bother so! Now I shall have my swing! Oh, what fun! I won"t let him worry me again just yet, I can tell him!"
"You don"t seem to consider," began Sydney,--but Mrs. Gould took this moment for advancing.
From the whole length of the large drawing-room the trio had been spectators, not quite auditors, though perhaps enough to perceive what line the Evelyns were taking.