It may well
be that our way home may be opened. In that case, Meg, you, my
joint-heiresses, would have something to inherit, and before going to
Scotland I had drawn up a will giving you and your Gaspard the French
claims, and Annora the English estates. I know the division is not
equal; but Gaspard can never be English, and Annora can never be
French; and may make nearly as much of an Englishman of Darpent as
our grandfather was.'
'Nay, nay, Eustace,' I said; 'the names of Walwyn and Ribaumont must
not be lost.'
'She may make Darpent deserve a fresh creation, then,' he answered,
smiling sadly. 'It will be best to wait a little, as I have told
her, to see how matters turn out at home.'
I asserted with all my heart, and told him what our brother Solivet
had said.
'Yes,' he said; 'Solivet and our mother will brook the matter much
better if she is to live in England, the barbarous land that they can
forget. And if I do not live, I will leave them each a letter that
they cannot quite disregard.'
I said I was glad he had not consented to Annora's notion of bringing
Darpent to Holland, since Solivet might lie in wait for him, and
besides, it would not be treating our mother rightly.
'No,' said Eustace; 'if I am ever strong enough again I must return
to Paris, and endeavour to overcome their opposition.' And he spoke
with a weary sigh, though I augured that he would soon improve under
our care, and that of Tryphena, who had always been better for him
than any doctor.
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