t is sheer nonsense, Will. You must take it, as it is yours, and
can't belong to any one else."

"I have thought it over, and I am quite sure that all the business of
the entail was wrong,--radically wrong from first to last. You are to
understand that my special regard for you has nothing whatever to do
with it. I should do the same thing if I felt that I hated you."

"Don't hate me, Will!"

"You know what I mean. I think the entail was all wrong, and I shan't
take advantage of it. It's not common sense that I should have
everything because of poor Charley's misfortune."

"But it seems to me that it does not depend upon you or upon me, or
upon anybody. It is yours,--by law, you know."

"And therefore it won't be sufficient for me to give it up without
making it yours by law also,--which I intend to do. I shall stay in
town to-morrow and give instructions to Mr. Green. I have thought
it proper to tell you this now, in order that you may mention it to
Captain Aylmer."

They were leaning over in the carriage one towards the other; her
face had been slightly turned away from him; but now she slowly
raised her eyes till they met his, and looking into the depth of
them, and seeing there all his love and all his suffering, and the
great nobility of his nature, her heart melted within her. Gradually,
as her tears came,--would come, in spite of all her constraint, she
again turned her face towards the window. "I can't talk now," she
said, "indeed I can't."

"There is no need for any more talking about it," he replied. And
there was no more talking between them on that subject, or on any
other, till the tickets had been taken and the train was again in
motion. Then he referred to it again for a moment. "You will tell
Captain Aylmer, my dear."

"I will tell him what you say, that he may know your generosity. But
of course he will agree with me that no such offer can be accepted.
It is quite,--quite,--quite,--out of the question."

"You had better tell him and say nothing more; or you can ask him
to see Mr. Green,--after to-morrow. He, as a man who understands
business, will know that this arrangement must be made, if I choose
to make it. Come; here we are. Porter, a four-wheeled cab. Do you go
with him, and I'll look after the luggage."

Clara, as she got into the cab, felt that she ought to have been
more stout in her resistance to his offer. But it would be better,
perhaps, that she should write to him from Aylmer