My home, White Windows, is in the neighbouring
parish--Heronsfoot--about five miles away, three if you cut across the
fields."
"Then of course you know this Mr. Coventry?"
"No, I've never met him. I knew Rackham Coventry, from whom your man
inherited, and I've heard him speak of his cousin Eliot. They were on very
bad terms with each other, so that Eliot never came near the place in poor
old Rack's time, and, as your brother tells you, he was abroad when the
property fell in to him. Heronsmere is a lovely old house, by the way."
"I wonder Mr. Coventry never came back until now," said Ann. "He must take
very little interest in the place."
"He's lived abroad for years, I believe. I remember Rack's telling me he
had been crossed in love, and he cut himself adrift from England
afterwards. I think the girl threw him over because in those days he wasn't
rich enough. She must feel rather a fool now, if she knows how things have
fallen out. The Heronsmere rent-roll is enormous."
"It rather serves her right, doesn't it?" commented Ann, with a feeling
that for once poetic justice had been meted out.
Lady Susan smiled.
"Yes. Though I always feel a bit sorry for people who get their deserts.
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