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full,” the Duke said. “When we were at Oxford together he never worried about his studies, although he did quite well. But he took part in every sport, and no party was complete without him.”
    He saw the expression on Alvina’s face and added:
    “I saw him just before he was killed, and he was laughing then and made a rather facetious bet with me about the length of the war.”
    There were tears in Alvina’s eyes, which she managed to control before she said:
    “Had Richard come ... home, things would have been very ... different, but when he died ... I think Papa ... died too.”
    There was silence until the Duke said:
    “Tell me what happened.”
    “As I have said, Papa was already making many economies before that, and afterwards, now that I think about it, he was not himself ... almost like a stranger ... and he refused to give me any money.”
    She paused, then said:
    “ I know you are angry with me for pawning all those things, but I could not let the pensioners starve or go to the Workhouse. He would not pay the Waltons their wages or even give me enough money to feed them.”
    The Duke was frowning as he asked:
    “Surely there was someone who could have helped you, even though you had no Solicitors? Walton tells me that there is no Estate Manager, and what happened to the Trustees?”
    Alvina made a helpless little gesture with her hands. “One had died before Richard went to France, another lived until last year and was very old and deaf, and the third, Sir John Sargent, lives in Scotland and never comes South.”
    “So there was no-one to help you?”
    “No-one. I thought of appealing to the family, but Papa had quarrelled with most of them, and when the rest no longer received the allowance he had always given them, they wrote him furious letters, which he refused to read.”
    The Duke put his hands to his forehead as if he found it hard to credit before he said:
    “As you really had no money, I can understand that you did the only thing possible, but I am still finding it difficult to credit that in your position there was no-one who could have helped you.”
    “I thought and thought of everyone,” Alvina replied, “but after Mama died, Papa quarrelled with so many people, not only our relations but everyone in the County. He refused to entertain and just sat reading the newspapers, hoping the war would end and Richard would come home.”
    As if she thought the Duke did not understand, she added:
    “Richard was the only person who could have persuaded Papa to look after the people on the Estate and the family who depended on him. He also would have prevented him from dismissing all the old servants. Papa would not listen to me.”
    She gave a deep sigh and continued:
    “He always blamed me because Mama was not very strong after I was born, and he had so much wanted me to be a boy.”
    Her voice trembled for a moment and then she said:
    “After Richard was killed he hated me, because he had no son to inherit.”
    She did not say any more, and in some strange way the Duke could almost read her thoughts.
    He knew almost, as if she had said it aloud, that she was remembering how her father had shouted at her to get out of his sight because she was alive while Richard was dead.
    For the first time since he had come into the room, he looked at what she was wearing and was aware that her gown was worn and threadbare.
    Although she may have deliberately worn something old because she had been cleaning the Library, he had the feeling that it was many years since she had spent anything on herself.
    Almost as if she, similarly, could read his thoughts, she said as if he had asked her the question:
    “I have not been able to spend anything on myself for years, and when my own dresses became too small for me, I wore Mama’s. But as I had so much work to do in the house when Papa had sent all the servants away, I would have been almost naked had it not been for Miss Richardson!”
    She glanced toward