“I ought to know, of course, and have some idea,” she said.  “I asked mother, and she said she was one.  What did she mean?”

“If you go to Florida you will probably learn what a Cracker is,” Jack replied, as he bade her good-night, pitying her for what he knew was in store for her.

The next day a telegram from New York called him to the city.  But before he went he had an interview with Ruby with regard to the journey which Eloise was designing to take as soon as her mother should have recovered from the shock of the Colonel’s death.

For a few days after his departure matters moved on quietly at the Crompton House, where Howard assumed the head unostentatiously, and without giving offence to any of the servants.  The Crompton estate, as reported to him by Lawyer Ferris, was larger than he had supposed, and if it were his he would be a richer man than he had ever hoped to be.  He liked money, and what it would bring him, and if he had been sure of his foothold he would have been very happy.  And he was nearly sure.  There was no will in the house, he was certain, for he had gone a second and third time through every place where one could possibly have been put, and found nothing.  He was safe there, and as he did not know all which Mr. Mason had written to his son, he did not greatly fear the result of Eloise’s trip to the South, which he thought a foolish undertaking.  But she was bent upon going and the day was fixed.  Grandmother Smith had returned home to await developments.  Amy was ready.  Eloise’s lameness was nearly gone, “And to-morrow we start,” she said to him one evening, when, after dinner, she joined him in the library, where he spent most of his time.

Every day since his uncle’s death, and he had seen so much of Eloise, Howard’s interest in her had increased, until it amounted to a passion, if not positive love.  Jack was a formidable rival, he knew, but now that he was probably master of Crompton Place, where her mother would be happier than elsewhere, she might think favorably of him.  At all events he’d take the chance, and now was his time.  Looking up quickly as she came in, and drawing a chair close to him for her, he said, “Sit down a moment while I talk to you.”  She sat down, and he continued, “I wish you would give up this journey, which can only end in disappointment.  I have no idea there was a marriage, or that you could prove it if there was.  My uncle was not a brute.  He loved Amy, and would not have kept silent till he died if she had been his legitimate daughter.  Give up the project.  I will gladly share the fortune with you, and be a son to your mother.  Will you, Eloise?  I must call you that, and I ask you to be my wife.  It is not so sudden as you may think,” he continued, as he saw her look of surprise.  “I do not show all I feel.  I admired you from the first, but Jack seemed to be ahead, and I gave way to him, not understanding until within the last few days how much you were to me.  I love you, and ask you again to be my wife.”