“I don’t intend any such thing. I shall take my own time, and do exactly the same that I should have done if John Hungerford had died without making a will.” “Are you going to be mulish?” “By no means. Marriage, in my estimation, is a very serious thing, and I will not be driven into it, or driven out of it, by any purely selfish considerations.” “Certainly not.” “Three million dollars will not induce me to trade myself off, like a swine in the market, to any living woman and three millions shall not induce me to purchase even the most fascinating creature that ever daintily trod this footstool.” “I understand that; but you are giving your uncle’s will a very narrow and bigoted interpretation. The terms are liberal; you have four or five years given you to become a Benedick; and you are not hampered by any conditions in regard to the lady. Don’t attempt to make a martyr of yourself.” “I have no such thought.” “But you have a little vein of obstinacy in your nature, which prompts you to go against your own interest. I don’t mean your pecuniary interest, but your moral, social, and domestic welfare. Hungerford, if an angel of light should suddenly appear before you, and declare that you might go to heaven by reading the fifth chapter of Matthew every morning during the rest of your lifetime, I think you would be content to stay out of heaven rather than comply with the conditions.” “I certainly should?” “You should?” “Certainly.” “Because you would deem it your duty to be on the off side.” “No; if an angel made such a declaration as that to me, I should set him down as a humbug, for I do not believe that heaven is to be purchased by compliance with a form; if it were, it would not be worth having. I believe in heaven, and I hope to reach it when I die. Your simile suits my argument better than it does your own. I shall endeavor to live a true and good life, not as the price which I am to pay for heaven, but because it is right that I should so live--because God requires such a life of me. My prayer shall not be the weary, toilsome, distasteful struggle of a doubting spirit, of which heaven is the guerdon, but my heart-breathing to Him who made me, who loves me, and to whom I am always grateful for his mercies. When I read the fifth chapter of Matthew--which I shall often do, I hope--it will be because the Saviour speaks there to my soul, and I love to hear his words.” “Upon my word, Hungerford, you will be a parson yet.” “No; but with all the means which God has placed in my hands, I hope to be a minister of the gospel in my own way to the poor and needy ones of earth.” “Then you intend to set up as a philanthropist,” laughed Dick.