ointment. Try not to give way, Miss Alice--or perhaps you had
better give way, it may relieve you. Mr. MacFarlane tells me that he
remonstrated with Mr. Hogarth. Most painful duty--must obey
instructions, of course. Your uncle seemed like adamant. I pity you
with all my heart."

"And so do I, with all my heart," said Mr. MacFarlane.

"And does no one pity me?" said the low voice of the heir to all; but
it was unheeded, for Alice had fainted. Her sister and Mr. Baird laid
her on the sofa, and applied the usual restoratives.

Mr. MacFarlane began to speak in an undertone, to the new master, of
the extent and value of the property he had thus suddenly come into
possession of, and congratulated him rather stiffly on the turn of
fortune that had raised him from a life of labour and comparative
poverty to ease and affluence; but his embarrassment was nothing
compared to that of the man whom he addressed. Francis Hogarth looked
round the spacious room, and out of the window to the pleasant
shrubbery and smooth-shaven lawn, and shuddered when he thought of the
two young cousins, brought up apparently in the lap of luxury, who were
to be turned out upon the world with 12 pounds a-year for three years.
The elder sister seemed to have a vigorous and robust constitution, but
the younger looked delicate. He saw, in his mind's eye, two
governesses, dragging out a weary and monotonous existence, far from
each other, while he, possessed of superabundance, was debarred from
helping them.

He advanced timidly to the sofa. Alice, who had recovered
consciousness, covered her face with both her hands, and sobbed aloud.
Jane turned towards him a glance, not of reproach, but of pity. He felt
it, and took her hand.

"Believe me, Miss Melville, no one can regret this extraordinary will
as I do. I will overturn it, if I possibly can."

"You cannot," said Jane; "it is quite in keeping with all my uncle's
ideas--quite consistent with all he has told us over and over again. He
had many strange notions, but he was generally in the right, and it MAY
prove to be so now." The sigh that accompanied these words told how
faint her hopes were.

"It has been positive unkindness to bring you up as he did, and now to
throw you upon the world. My beginning was different. How could he
expect the same success for you--women, too?"

"And are women so inferior, then? It was my uncle's cherished belief
that they were not. He said he never saw a woman take