‘I, at least, am glad to think that you will be rich,’ said she aloud. ‘I? I shall have about five thousand pounds, I believe.’ ‘But I was told that the half-million would not go to the Free Church--that it would be divided between you and your cousin.’ ‘Surely you do not think I could take it?’ The girl stared at him without saying a word. ‘It does not belong to me. My uncle never meant that I should have it. I have no more right to that money, morally, than you have.’ ‘And you mean that you will give it up!’ ejaculated Laura. ‘What else could I do? If you said to me, “Give that sovereign to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and keep that shilling for yourself.” And if by mistake you gave me the shilling instead of the sovereign, and the sovereign for the shilling, would I be entitled to keep the sovereign and hand over the shilling? You can’t say you think so for a moment.’ ‘I think you are mad to hand over such an enormous sum to those Presbyterians; and any sensible person would say just the same.’ ‘But you cannot understand. My uncle intended----’ ‘I don’t care what your uncle intended. If he did, or meant to do, an insane thing, that is no reason why you should do one too.’ ‘Do you really think it would be honest to keep that money, when it never was intended for me?’ asked Alec slowly. ‘It matters very little what I think, for I know very well you won’t listen to me. But I suppose what the law gives you is your own, and if you give it away, it will be your own act, and, to my mind, a very foolish one.’ ‘I have written to the executors of the will, saying that I would only take my share of any residue there may be after the half-million is deducted.’ ‘Oh! Well, I suppose there is no more to be said.’ Alec was silent for a minute. Then he started up. ‘I am going now. I won’t wait for my aunt and Margaret.’ Laura rose and gave him her hand. ‘Don’t think I am angry with you,’ she said, with one of her old bright smiles. ‘I have no business to be, in any case.’ ‘I am sure, if you think it over, you will see that I could do nothing else. Good-bye.’ ‘Good-bye.’ There was so much he would have liked to say. It seemed so cold, so ungrateful, to part with a conventional ‘Good-bye,’ without a word of the past, without a word of the future. But the thoughts in his heart could not be spoken. It was almost as if he had been watching for an hour beside the grave of one whom he had loved. And Laura was sitting in her old attitude over the fire, struggling hard to keep back her tears. ‘I will not cry for him; I will not,’ she said to herself. ‘He is not worth it. He is a perfect fool. To fling away all that money! And we might have been so happy! I could not marry a man so poor as he is now; but he might have asked me, all the same. Well,’ and here the poor girl gave a long-drawn sigh, ‘I shall never like anyone else half so well.’ CHAPTER XXXV. MISS MEREDITH INSISTS ON BEING OBEYED.