like that you will get enough to buy it back again."

"It is not a very large one," Cyril said. "'Tis down in Norfolk, but
it was a grand old house--at least, so I have heard my father say,
though I have but little remembrance of it, as I was but three years
old when I left it. My father, who was Sir Aubrey Shenstone, had
hoped to recover it; but he was one of the many who sold their
estates for far less than their value in order to raise money in the
King's service, and, as you are aware, none of those who did so have
been reinstated, but only those who, having had their land taken from
them by Parliament, recovered them because their owners had no
title-deeds to show, save the grant of Parliament that was of no
effect in the Courts. Thus the most loyal men--those who sold their
estates to aid the King--have lost all, while those that did not so
dispossess themselves in his service are now replaced on their land."

"It seems very unfair," Nellie said indignantly.

"It is unfair to them, assuredly, Mistress Nellie. And yet it would
be unfair to the men who bought, though often they gave but a tenth
of their value, to be turned out again unless they received their
money back. It is not easy to see where that money could come from,
for assuredly the King's privy purse would not suffice to pay all the
money, and equally certain is it that Parliament would not vote a
great sum for that purpose."

"It is a hard case, lad--a hard case," Captain Dave said, as he
puffed the smoke from his pipe. "Now I know how you stand, I blame,
you in no way that you long more for a life of adventure than to
settle down as a city scrivener. I don't think even my wife, much as