In the last letter he says that I can go down to the place--Thexford Hall, it is called--as soon as I please; and, of course, I shall start to-morrow.

It is in Devonshire, and all my life I've longed to see Devonshire.

And now I'm to be _paid_ for going there! Mr.Clendon, I have been living in a dream since this letter came.

I've read it fifty--oh, a hundred times! Sometimes I've held it tightly in both hands, afraid that it should turn to a withered leaf, as the paper did in the fairy story, or that I should wake up from my dream and find my hands empty.

Do you know Thexford Hall ?" "It is a large place, I believe--quite a famous one," he said.