Launce Keymer was a good-looking young fellow, with an insinuating manner and a plausible tongue. Being possessed of so many advantages, it was scarcely to be wondered at that he was extremely popular among the marriageable young ladies of St. Oswyth\'s and its neighbourhood. He was the son of a local brewer, and assisted his father in the business. He had been spoiled and indulged while young, and, as an only son, had been allowed a free rein in his extravagances. But, with a second family growing up, and an expensive wife half his own age, the elder Keymer found it a difficult matter nowadays to meet Launce\'s frequent demands on his purse. In short, the only thing left for the latter to do--and it was a point as to which both father and son were in thorough accord--was to marry a girl with money.
Now, it so happened that Keymer père had a cousin, who was a clerk in the office of Mr. Linaway, the chief lawyer in St. Oswyth\'s--a man with a large family and a very limited income, whom the brewer had more than once been able to help, at little or no cost to himself. This cousin, Tuttle by name, not ungrateful for past favours, and with an eye, perhaps, to any which the future might have in store for him, and having some reason to believe that Launce was looking out for a wife with a fortune, determined to do the brewer what he termed "a good turn," in confiding to him a certain professional secret which he had learnt by accident, and of which he was supposed to be wholly ignorant.
"The very man I\'ve been wanting to see for the last week or more," said Tuttle to the elder Keymer, next time they met. "Rather a curious thing happened to me about ten days ago, which I want to tell you about. I\'ll turn and walk part of the way with you, if you don\'t mind. Well, you must know that one forenoon I had occasion to visit the strong room which opens out of the governor\'s private office, in order to obtain some title-deeds which were wanted, but which I was not at once able to find, owing to their having been misplaced. While thus engaged, the governor rang his bell for Mr. Dix, the managing clerk. I suppose the old boy, who is beginning to break up, and whose memory fails him strangely at times, had quite forgotten that I was there within hearing. But be that as it may, he proceeded to give Dix instructions for the drawing up of a couple of wills, the particulars of which he was to keep strictly to himself. The wills in question were those of the two Miss Thursbys of Vale View House. The governor talks in a low voice, and mumbles a good deal, so that I was not able to catch all he said; but I picked up enough to satisfy myself that, with the exception of a few hundreds, to be distributed amongst various charities, an annuity to an old servant, and a few minor legacies, the whole of the property of both sisters is bequeathed to the young lady known as Miss Ethel Thursby--their niece, I believe she is. Of course, I can only make a rough guess as to the value of the property in question, which seems to consist chiefly of securities of various kinds; but there\'s no doubt in my mind that, if realised, it would mount up to a respectable number of thousands. That being the case, Cousin Bob, it might be worth your boy\'s while to make up to the heiress, who is, I believe, a very pretty girl into the bargain. But not a word to a soul of what I\'ve just told you, unless you want me to lose my berth and be ruined for life."
The hint thus afforded was too precious not to be followed up and acted upon.
Launce Keymer had already been introduced to Ethel, he having met her on two or three occasions at garden parties and other gatherings of young people. He had admired her for the time being, as he admired every pretty girl he met, and had thought no more about her. Truth to tell, Ethel was not the kind of girl to attract more than a passing glance of admiration from the brewer\'s son. She was too quietly dignified and "stand-offish"; she was lacking in dash and "go"; she was one of those girls whom he felt instinctively it would be unwise to talk slang to; there was something about her which, when in her company, compelled him to be upon his best behaviour; he never felt quite what he termed "at home" with her; as a consequence of which, while always smilingly polite to her, he had rather shunned than sought her society.
When the brewer had told his son that he must either change his mode of life, or marry a girl with money, the latter had pertinently asked: "Where am I to find her?" That there was an overplus of marriageable young women at St. Oswyth\'s, as there is in all small provincial towns, was a melancholy fact which could not be gainsaid, nor that many of them were nice girls, carefully brought up, well educated, and in every way fitted to make a reasonable man happy; but, alas! they were one and all comparatively poor. Several of them had small dowries, and would inherit something considerable at the death of their parents; but \'tis ill waiting for dead men\'s shoes, and Launce Keymer\'s needs were those of the immediate future. Meantime, while waiting for the coming heiress, he flirted to his heart\'s content, but, so far as was known, contrived to steer clear of any serious entanglement.
And now, lo and behold! the heiress was here--had been here, at his elbow all the time, without his having had the least suspicion of the fact.
No long time was allowed to elapse after the interview between Mr. Keymer and his cousin before Launce began to seize every opportunity that came in his way to pay assiduous court to the heiress of Vale View. There was a good deal of quiet gaiety in St. Oswyth\'s that winter and spring, and they met on a number of occasions. It is not needful that we should linger over what came to pass. Launce, with a cleverness which, in a better cause, would have done him credit, did his best to adapt himself to what he called Ethel\'s "Quaker-like ways,&quo............