"Oh, no. He would never leave it to us. He didn't like me, for one thing. But that was my fault, perhaps. He was not over-kind to my mother, and so I never liked him." And here at length she burst into tears. She wept very quietly, however, and Mr. Sargent went on. "But you must be his heirs-at-law. Will you allow me to make inquiry--to do anything that may be necessary, for you? Don't misunderstand me," he added, pleadingly. "It is only as a friend--what I have been for a long time now, Lucy." Lucy scarcely hesitated before she answered, with a restraint that appeared like coldness: "Thank you, Mr. Sargent. The business cannot in any case be mine. It is my grandmother's, and I can, and will, take no hand in it." "Will you say to your grandmother that I am at her service?" "If it were a business matter, there is no one I would more willingly--ask to help us; but as you say it is a matter of friendship, I must refuse your kindness." Mr. Sargent was vexed with himself, and disappointed with her. He supposed that she misinterpreted his motives. Between the two, he was driven to a sudden, unresolved action of appeal. "Miss Burton," he said, "for God's sake, do not misunderstand me, and attribute to mercenary motives the offer I make only in the confidence that you will not do me such an injustice." Lucy was greatly distressed. Her color went and came for a few moments, and then she spoke. "Mr. Sargent, I am just as anxious that you should understand me; but I am in a great difficulty and have to throw myself on your generosity." She paused again, astonished to find herself making a speech. But she did not pause long. "I refuse your kindness," she said, "only because I am not free to lay myself under such obligation to you. Do not ask me to say more," she added, finding that he made no reply. But if she had looked in his face, she would have seen that he understood her perfectly. Honest disappointment and manly suffering were visible enough on his countenance. But he did not grow ashy pale, as some lovers would at such an utterance. He would never have made, under any circumstances, a passionate lover, though an honest and true one; for he was one of those balanced natures which are never all in one thing at once. Hence the very moment he received a shock, was the moment in which he began to struggle for victory. Something called to him, as Una to the Red-Cross Knight when face to face with the serpent Error: "Strangle her, else she sure will strangle thee." Before Lucy's eyes and his met, he had mastered his countenance at last. "I understand you, Miss Burton," he said, in a calm voice, which only trembled a little--and it was then that Lucy ventured to look at him--"and I thank you. Please to remember that if ever you need a friend, I am at your service." Without another word, he lifted his hat and went away.