belonged to Mr. Peveril."

"Peacock's Range is mine and was my father's before me, Miss Alice. It
was leased to Peveril for a term of years, but I fancy he would be glad
to give it up to-morrow. Well, I have Peacock's Range and about four
hundred pounds a-year."

Her face brightened. "Then you need not talk about starving," she said,
gaily.

"And, later, I shall have altogether about a thousand a-year. Though I
hope it will be very long before it falls to me. Do you think two people
might venture to set up at Peacock's Range, and keep, say, a couple of
servants upon four hundred a-year? Could they exist upon it?"

"Oh, dear, yes," she answered eagerly, quite unconscious of his drift.
"Did you mean yourself and some friend?"

He nodded.

"Why, I don't see how they could spend it all. There'd be no rent to
pay. And just think of all the fruit and vegetables in the garden
there!"

"Then I take you at your word, Alice," he cried impulsively, passing his
arm round her waist. "You are the 'friend.' My dear, I have long wanted
to ask you to be my wife, and I did not dare. This place, Leet Hall,
encumbered me: for I feared the opposition that I, as its heir, should
inevitably meet."