"I could have gone further than that, Sara, and stigmatised it as a very unjust one. Those poor Stephensons, who have been expecting this money--who had a right to expect it--are cut off with a paltry fifty pounds each and the furniture." "O papa! And are they not very poor?" "So poor, that I believe honestly they have not always bread to eat; that is, what people, born as they were, designate as bread; proper food. They carry the signs of it in their countenances." "And for Lady Oswald to have left her money away from them! To whom has she left it?" "To one who has no right to it, who never expected it." "I suppose you mean Sir Philip?" "No, it is not left to him. But now, give me your opinion, Sara. Let us for argument's sake put ourselves in the position of this fortunate legatee. Suppose--suppose, my dear it were left to _you_: this money to which you have no claim, no right--to which others have a claim, how should you feel?" "I should feel uncomfortable," replied Sara. "I should feel that I was enriched at the expense of the Stephensons; I am sure that I should feel almost as though I had committed a fraud. Papa," she added more eagerly, the idea occurring to her, "I should like to give the money back to them." "That is the very argument I have been using myself. Wedderburn, Lady Oswald's lawyer, has been here, talking of the matter, and I told him that were I the man to whom it was left, I should give it back, every shilling of it, to the channel where it ought at once to have gone--the brothers Stephenson. Wedderburn did not agree with me: he brought forward the argument that the man's children might reproach him afterwards. What do you think?" "I think, papa, that were I the man you speak of, I should act upon my own judgment, and give it back without reference to the opinion of my children." "That is precisely what he has resolved to do. Sara, the money is left to me." Sara Davenal, taken completely by surprise, halted in her walk and looked at the Doctor, not knowing how to believe him. "It is true, Sara. I find I am the favoured legatee of Lady Oswald: knowing at the same time that I have no more right to be so than have those espalier rose-trees at your side. I have resolved to refuse the money; to repudiate the will altogether, so far as my share in it goes; and to suffer a previous will to be acted upon, which gives the money to the Stephensons. I trust my children will not hereafter turn round and reproach me." "O papa!" She spoke the words now almost reproachfully, in reproach that he could ever think it. "Yes, I shall do it, Sara. And yet," he added, his voice insensibly sinking to a whisper, "I have heavy need for money just now, and the help these thousands would be to me no one but myself knows." Sara was silent. A shiver passed over her face at the allusion. She did not dare reply to it. The subject was too painful; and, besides, she was kept partially in the dark.