Cambridge you could come here in vacations. But my hope would be
that you might marry. It is a house for a family. If you do not
care to live here, I would rather it were sold. While I live, I
hope you will be content to spend some time here, and make
acquaintance with our neighbours, by which I mean the village
people. I shall tell Cousin Frank my intentions, and that will
probably suffice to make it known. I have a very great love for the
place, and as far as I can see, you will be likely to have the
same.

"You need not feel overburdened with gratitude. You are my only
near relation; and indeed I may say that if I were to die before I
have signed my will, you would inherit all my fortune as next-of-
kin. So you will see that instead of enriching you, I am to a great
extent disinheriting you! Just tell me simply if you acquiesce. I
want no pledges, nor do I want to bind you in any way. I will not
say more, except that it has been a very deep delight to me to find
a son in my old age. I had always hoped it would turn out so; and
in my experience, God is very careful to give us our desires, just
or unjust, great or small.--Your loving Aunt,

"ANNE GRAVES."


Howard was stupefied for a moment by this communication, but he was
more affected by the love and confidence it showed than by the
prospect of wealth--wealth was not a thing he had ever expected, or
indeed thought much about; but it was a home that he had found. The
great lack of his life had been a local attachment, a place where
he had reason to live. Cambridge with all its joys had never been