Ovid showed no inclination to adopt this proposal. He asked an idle
question. "I heard of their finding the Will--are there any romantic
circumstances?"

Mrs. Gallilee surveyed her son with an expression of good-humoured
contempt. "What a boy you are, in some things! Have you been reading a
novel lately? My dear, when the people in Italy made up their minds, at
last, to have the furniture in your uncle's room taken to pieces, they
found the Will. It had slipped behind a drawer, in a rotten old
cabinet, full of useless papers. Nothing romantic (thank God!), and
nothing (as Mr. Mool's letter tells me) that can lead to
misunderstandings or disputes."

Ovid's indifference was not to be conquered. He left it to his mother
to send him word if he had a legacy "I am not as much interested in it
as you are," he explained. "Plenty of money left to you, of course?" He
was evidently thinking all the time of something else.

Mrs. Gallilee stopped in the hall, with an air of downright alarm.

"Your mind is in a dreadful state," she said.

"Have you really forgotten what I told you, only yesterday? The Will
appoints me Carmina's guardian."

He had plainly forgotten it--he started, when his mother recalled the
circumstance. "Curious," he said to himself, "that I was not reminded
of it, when I saw Carmina's rooms prepared for her." His mother,
anxiously looking at him, observed that his face brightened when he