CHAPTER III

THE WARNING


"Well, all I have to say is, 'Bravo, young un!'" Rupert Wyndham stretched
out a careless arm and encircled his sister's waist therewith. She was
perched on the arm of his chair, and she tweaked his ear airily in
response to this encouragement.

"Oh, you're pleased, are you?" she said. "That's very nice of you."

"Pleased is a term that does not express my feelings in the least," he
declared. "I am transported with delight. You are the last person I
should have expected to retrieve the family fortunes, but you have done
it right nobly. I'm told the fellow is as rich as Croesus. It's to be
hoped that he is quite resigned to the fact that he is going to have
plenty of relations when he marries. By the way, hasn't he any of his
own?"

"None that count--only cousins and things. Such a mercy!" said Chris.
"And oh, Rupert, isn't it a blessing now that we never managed to sell
Old Park, or even to let it? We shall be able to live there ourselves and
turn it into a perfect paradise."

"He wants to buy it, eh?" Rupert glanced up keenly.