Kenneth was left the master of Elmhurst and possessor of considerable
wealth besides, and at first he could scarcely realize his good fortune
or decide how to take advantage of it. He had one good and helpful
friend, an old lawyer named Watson, who had not only been a friend of
his uncle, and the confidant of Aunt Jane for years, but had taken an
interest in the lonely boy and had done his best to make his life
brighter and happier.

When Kenneth became a landed proprietor Mr. Watson was appointed his
guardian, and the genial old lawyer abandoned the practice of law and
henceforth devoted himself to his ward's welfare and service.

They made a trip to Europe together, where Kenneth studied the pictures
of the old masters and obtained instruction from some of the foremost
living artists of the old world.

It was while they were abroad, a year before the time of this story,
that the boy met Aunt Jane's three nieces again. They were "doing"
Europe in company with a wealthy bachelor uncle, John Merrick, a
generous, kind-hearted and simple-minded old gentleman who had taken the
girls "under his wing," as he expressed it, and had really provided for
their worldly welfare better than Aunt Jane, his sister, could have
done.

This "Uncle John" was indeed a whimsical character, as the reader will
presently perceive. Becoming a millionaire "against his will," as he
declared, he had learned to know his nieces late in life, and found in
their society so much to enjoy that he was now wholly devoted to their
interests. His one friend was Major Doyle, Patsy's father, a dignified