Had they not been discussed between them, again and again, in that room--his bitterness that he had no son, his fear that the regained title might be extinguished again in female descent, his grievance that the succession could not be altered.

It was his dream to found a new line of Turralds, and be remembered as the head of it.

"If you could only get the descent taken outside the limits of the original creation, Brimsdown--" The harsh voice, uttering these words, seemed to reach Mr.Brimsdown in the muffled silence at that moment.

He had told him, again and again, that the thing was impossible.

If the Turrald barony was called out of abeyance it was an act of Royal grace and favour.