“If you had brought me this wonderful news yesterday, boys, you would have made me almost insane with joy and gratitude--ay, have made me the happiest of men. Now it is but as dross to me. The gods have sent the golden gift to me too late--too late.” “You did not wait for me to finish, old fellow,” said Gaines, coolly. “There is a string tied to the inheritance. If you accept it you must take a girl with it--for your wife, so your uncle’s will reads.” CHAPTER III. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE. “Then let the inheritance go if it be mine only on condition that I take a wife with it,” exclaimed John Dinsmore, proudly. “I will have none of it. Never mention it to me again if you are true friends of mine and respect my feelings. I would not marry the loveliest or the richest woman the world holds. I could never look into a woman’s face with love in my heart for her, and the man who marries a woman without loving her is a villain, a rascal of the deepest dye. Heaven forbid that I should sell my honor and my manhood for such a price. Say no more about the inheritance, boys, I spurn it.” “You have actually gone mad, Dinsmore,” cried Ballou, vehemently. “It would do for an actor on the stage to rant about wealth in that way, but in real life it is quite a different matter. One would think to hear you that you never knew what it was to want a square meal when your stories were returned with thanks, or to borrow enough from your friends to buy a paper dickey and cuffs in which to make a neat show before an editor. Bah!--don’t be a fool, I say. Take the goods the gods provide.” “And I echo Ballou’s sentiments,” declared Jerry Gaines. “No one but a positive madman would let such a chance slip. Money can do anything, old fellow. It can purchase comfort and position, the luxury of idleness, royal good times, every enjoyment--ay, and last but not least, the hand of a beautiful woman in marriage. What more could you want?” “I should want the heart of the woman I wedded, and money cannot buy the love of a true, good woman’s heart,” returned John Dinsmore, huskily. As he spoke he thought of the royally beautiful creature from whom he had so lately parted on those self-same white sands, the girl to whom he had given all the love of his loyal heart, only to be scoffed at and spurned; the girl whom he had blindly believed Providence had especially given to him since the hour he had saved her life so miraculously, risking thereby the loss of his own. He had been so sure of her that he never for one instant doubted fate’s intentions, and had given himself up to his idolatrous love for her, body and soul, heart and mind. “Say no more on the subject, good friends. You both mean well, I know, but it can never be,” said Dinsmore, earnestly. “Believe me, I know why I speak thus. Say no more to me of the inheritance. Help me to forget that it was ever in my grasp; that will be true friendship shown to me.”