By that time it will be possible for you to come and live here (I trust a wiser and a better man), whilst the estate can bear the charge upon it of a sufficient income to be paid to your mother and sister to live in comfort at Little Gables, which has been willed absolutely to your mother and to Rachel after her.

At present the estate could not bear that drain--unless only to get into fresh difficulties; but three more years will put things right.

During those three years, Tom, you will not be master of Gablehurst.

You will have no more power than you have had in my lifetime.

But I hope and trust you will be a dutiful son to your mother, and will cause her no heart-breaking anxieties, and oppose no vexatious obstacles to her management of the estate." It cannot be denied that Tom was taken aback at this.