Helen took it down and drew with a pencil the limits of the Cairnforth
estates. They extended along the whole peninsula, and far up into the
main land.

"There, Lord Cairnforth, every bit of this is yours."

"To do exactly what I like with?"

"Certainly."

"Helen, it is an awfully serious thing."

Helen was silent.

"How strange!" He continued, after a pause. "And this was really all
mine from the very hour of my birth?"

"Yes."

"And when I come of age I shall have to take my property into my own
hands, and manage it just as I choose, or as I can?"

"Of course you will; and I think you can do it, if you try."

For it was not the first time that Helen had pondered over these things,
since, being neither learned nor poetical, worldly-minded nor selfish,
in her silent hours her mind generally wandered to the practical
concerns of other people, and especially of those she loved.