"The Virginian? What is he good for? I always thought he was good for
nothing but to cultivate tobacco and my grandmother," says my lord,
laughing.

She struck her hand upon the table with an energy that made the glasses
dance. "I say he was the best of you all. There never was one of the male
Esmonds that had more brains than a goose, except him. He was not fit for
this wicked, selfish old world of ours, and he was right to go and live
out of it. Where would your father have been, young people, but for him?"

"Was he particularly kind to our papa?" says Lady Maria.

"Old stories, my dear Maria!" cries the Countess. "I am sure my dear Earl
was very kind to him in giving him that great estate in Virginia."

"Since his brother's death, the lad who has been here to-day is heir to
that. Mr. Draper told me so! Peste! I don't know why my father gave up
such a property."

"Who has been here to-day?" asked the Baroness, highly excited.

"Harry Esmond Warrington, of Virginia," my lord answered: "a lad whom
Will nearly pitched into the river, and whom I pressed my lady the
Countess to invite to stay here."

"You mean that one of the Virginian boys has been to Castlewood, and has
not been asked to stay here?"

"There is but one of them, my dear creature," interposes the Earl. "The