"Enmity?" Hendle stopped in his walk and stared.
"Oh, yes. Leigh and I are great friends."
"He doesn't like him overmuch. Mallien is so rude to him."
"And to everyone," finished Carrington with a shrug. "A most disagreeable person. Well, as Leigh likes you and doesn't like your cousin, I take it he could not have invented this story to do you out of the property in Mallien's favor."
"No. Leigh is the best of good fellows, though rather eccentric. He must have found the will; it is impossible that he could have suggested its existence otherwise."
"I suppose not," murmured Carrington vaguely; then glanced shrewdly at his client. "Does he know your family history?"
"Everyone in Barship knows that," replied Hendle, dropping again into his chair with a sigh. "There is nothing to know really, as we have always been a dull, homely lot of people."
"Tell me how your descent runs from John Hendle?"
"In the direct male line. Frederick, the son; Henry, the grandson; Charles, the great-grandson, and myself, the great-great-grandson."
"He comes in the female line from Walter, the eldest son of John Hendle. Eunice, the daughter of Walter and the granddaughter of John, married George Filbert. Mrs. Filbert had a daughter Anne, who married Frank Mallien, and her son is Julius, my cousin, who has, as you know, a daughter."
"Dorinda, to whom you are engaged," commented Carrington; "that marriage will bring the elder and the younger branches of the family together. A very good arrangement. Will Julius marry again?"
"I should think every single member of the sex returned the compliment. But what I mean is, that when you marry Miss Mallien, the money will come to you and her when her father dies."
"It should, as we two represent the elder and younger branches of the family, joined, as you observed. But Mallien is quite capable of leaving the money elsewhere out of devilment. He tolerates me because I lend him money, and he has very little affection for Dorinda. We are to marry next month, because I have promised Mallien five hundred a year when I make Dorinda my wife, and he is now in a hurry for the money. But," added Rupert anxiously, "if he knew that he was the rightful heir, he would forbid the marriage."