No confinement there; no fences and boundaries; all as free as
air. No monotony: one week you can dig for gold, another you can ride
among your flocks, another you can hunt. All this in a climate so
delightful that you can lie all night in the open air, without a
blanket, under a new firmament of stars, not one of which illumines the
dull nights of Europe."
The bait was too tempting. "Well, you _are_ the right sort," cried
Reginald.
But presently he began to doubt. "But all that will cost a lot of
money."
"It will, but I have a great deal of money."
Reginald thought, and said, suspiciously, "I don't know why you should
do all this for me."
"Do you not? What! when I have brought you into this family, and
encouraged you in such vast expectations, could I, in honor and common
humanity, let you fall into poverty and neglect? No. I have many
thousand pounds, all my own, and you will have them all, and perhaps
waste them all; but it will take you some time, because, while you are
wasting, I shall be saving more for you."
Then there was a pause, each waiting for the other.
Then Lady Bassett said, quietly, and with great apparent composure, "Of
course there is a condition attached to all this."
"What is that?"
"I must receive from you a written paper, signed by yourself and by
Mrs.
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