Not a word did Mark utter, but his face shone as if it had been heaven he was going to. No colour, only light came to the surface of it, and broke into the loveliest smile. When Mark smiled, his whole body and being smiled.

Hester’s face flushed a rose red. Her first thought was of the lovely things of the country and the joy of them. Her next thought was of the poor: “Now I shall be able to do something for them!” But quickly followed the thought that now she would be able to do less than ever for them.

Yrndale was far from London. Maybe her father and mother would let her stay behind, but she hardly dared even hope for that. Perhaps it was God’s will to remove her from London because she was doing more harm than good. Now her endeavours would be at an end!

“You don’t like the thought of leaving London, Hester?” said her mother with concern, thinking it was because of Vavasor.

“I am very glad for you and papa, mother,” answered Hester. “I was thinking of my poor people and what they would do without me.”

“I have sometimes found,” returned her mother, “that the things I dreaded most serve me best in the end. I don’t mean because I got used to them, or because they did me good. I mean they furthered what I thought they would ruin.”

“Thank you, mother! You always comfort me. For myself I could not imagine anything more pleasant. If only it were near London!”

She was still thinking of her poor, but her mother suspected another reason.

“I suppose, father,” said Cornelius when his father told him the news that same evening, “that there will be no more occasion for me to work at the bank.”

“There will be more occasion than ever,” answered his father. “There will be far more to look after when I am gone. What do you imagine you could employ yourself with down there? You have never taken to study, otherwise, as you know, I would have sent you to Oxford. When you leave the bank, it will be to learn farming and the management of an estate.”

Cornelius made no reply. His father’s words annoyed him. He was hardly good at anything except taking offense, and already he looked on the estate as nearly as much his as his father’s. What right had his father to keep from him what he deserved—a share in the good fortunes of the family? He left the study almost hating his father because of what he counted his injustice. Despite his father’s request that he would say nothing of the matter until things were more settled, he made not the slightest effort to obey him, and took the first opportunity to pour out his righteous indignation to Vavasor.