o be almost impossible that she should
speak to her cousin. She had told him of her aunt's money, and the
way in which she had on that very morning sent back the cheque to the
lawyer; and she had said something also as to Lady Aylmer's views,
and her own views as to Lady Aylmer. With Will this subject was one
most difficult of discussion; and he blushed and fidgeted in his
chair, and walked about the room, and found himself unable to look
Clara in the face as she spoke to him. But she went on, goading him
with the name, which of all names was the most distasteful to him;
and mentioning that name almost in terms of reproach,--of reproach
which he felt it would be ungenerous to reciprocate, but which he
would have exaggerated to unmeasured abuse if he had given his tongue
licence to speak his mind.

"I was right to send back the money;--wasn't I, Will? Say that I was
right. Pray tell me that you think so!"

"I don't understand it at present, you see; I am no lawyer."

"But it doesn't want a lawyer to know that I couldn't take the money
from him. I am sure you feel that."

"If a man owes money of course he ought to pay it."

"But he doesn't owe it, Will. It is intended for generosity."

"You don't want anybody's generosity, certainly." Then he reflected
that Clara must, after all, depend entirely on the generosity of
some one till she was married; and he wanted to explain to her that
everything he had in the world was at her service,--was indeed her
own. Or he would have explained, if he knew how, that he did not
intend to take advantage of the entail,--that the Belton estate
should belong to her as the natural heir of her father. But he
conceived that the moment for explaining this had hardly as yet
arrived, and that he had better confine himself to some attempt at
teaching her that no extraneous assistance would be necessary to her.
"In money matters," said he, "of course you are to look to me. That
is a matter of course. I'll see Green about the other affairs. Green
and I are friends. We'll settle it."

"That's not what I meant, Will."

"But it's what I mean. This is one of those things in which a man has
to act on his own judgment. Your father and I understood each other."

"He did not understand that I was to accept your bounty."

"Bounty is a nasty word, and I hate it. You accepted me,--as your
brother, and as such I mean to act." The word almost stuck in his
throat, but he brought it out at last in a fie