Till that moment Roger had never imagined what it would be to be anything but the heir of Maxfield.
Every dream of his for the future had Maxfield painted into the background.

He loved the place as his own, as his sphere in life, as his destiny.

Was that a dream after all?
Were all his castles in the air to vanish, and leave him a mere dependant in a house not his own?
He took up the document and read it over.

It was brief and abrupt.
Referring to the former will, it enjoined that all its provisions should remain strictly in force as if no codicil or later will had been executed until the 26th of October, 1886, on which day Roger Ingleton the younger should attain his majority.

But if on or before that day the elder son, whom the testator still believed to be living, should be found and identified, the former will on that day was to become null and void, and the elder son was to become sole possessor of the entire property.