"Then I must find another messenger. Mr. Goffe will do it perhaps. He shall tell me how much he wants to keep, and the rest shall be yours. That is all. If you tell mamma, ask her not to be hard to me." He stood over her and took her hand, but knew not how to speak a word to her. He attempted to kiss her hand; but she raised herself on her elbow, and shook her head and drew it from him. "It belongs to Daniel Thwaite," she said. Then he left her and did not speak another word. "What has she said?" asked the Countess, with an attempt at smiling. "I do not know that I should tell you." "Surely, Lovel, you are bound to tell me." "She has offered me all her property,--or most of it." "She is right," said the Countess. "But she has sworn to me, on the Bible, that she will never be my wife." "Tush!--it means nothing." "Ah yes;--it means much. It means all. She never loved me,--not for an instant. That other man has been before me, and she is too firm to be moved." "Did she say so?" He was silent for a moment and then replied, "Yes; she did say so." "Then let her die!" said the Countess. "Lady Lovel!" "Let her die. It will be better. Oh, God! that I should be brought to this. And what will you do, my lord? Do you mean to say that you will abandon her?" "I cannot ask her to be my wife again." "What;--because she has said this in her sickness,--when she is half delirious,--while she is dreaming of the words that man spoke to her? Have you no more strength than that? Are you so poor a creature?" "I think I have been a poor creature to ask her a second time at all." "No; not so. Your duty and mine are the same,--as should be hers. We must forget ourselves while we save the family. Do not I bear all? Have not I borne everything--contumely, solitude, ill words, poverty, and now this girl's unkindness? But even yet I will not give it up. Take the property,--as it is offered." "I could not touch it." "If not for you, then for your children. Take it all, so that we may be the stronger. But do not abandon us now, if you are a man." He would not stay to hear her further exhortations, but hurried away from the house full of doubt and unhappiness. CHAPTER XXXIX. LADY ANNA'S OFFER.