His thoughts were back in the past.

That was a foolish match of his, that Gretna Green match for love, foolish so far as prudence went; but the countess had been an affectionate wife to him, had borne with his follies and his neglect, had been an admirable mother to their only child.

One child alone had been theirs, and in her thirteenth year the countess had died.

If they had but been blessed with a son--the earl moaned over the long-continued disappointment still--he might have seen a way out of his difficulties.

The boy, as soon as he was of age, would have joined with him in cutting off the entail, and---- "My lord," said a servant entering the room and interrupting the earl's castles in the air, "a gentleman is asking to see you." "Who ?" cried the earl, sharply, not perceiving the card the man was bringing.