w won't let you give it up without a contest. He suggested
a compromise,--that you and I should divide it. But I hate
compromises." She looked up into his face but said nothing. "The
truth is, I have been so wronged in the matter, the whole thing has
been so cruel, it has, all of it together, so completely ruined me
and my prospects in life, that were it any one but you, I would
sooner have a lawsuit than give up one penny of what is left." Again
she looked at him, but he went on speaking of it without observing
her. "Think what it has been, Margaret! The whole of this property
was once mine! Not the half of it only that has been called yours,
but the whole of it! The income was actually paid for one half-year
to a separate banking account on my behalf, before I was of age. Yes,
paid to me, and I had it! My uncle Jonathan had no more legal right
to take it away from me than you have to take the coat off my back.
Think of that, and of what four-and-twenty thousand pounds would have
done for me and my family from that time to this. There have been
nearly thirty years of this robbery!"

"It was not my fault, John."

"No; it was not your fault. But if your brothers could pay me back
all that they really owe me, all that the money would now be worth,
it would come to nearly a hundred thousand pounds. After that, what
is a man to say when he is asked to compromise? As far as I can see,
there is not a shadow of doubt about it. Mr Slow does not pretend
that there is a doubt. How they can fail to see the justice of it is
what passes my understanding!"

"Mr Slow will give up at once, I suppose, if I ask him?"

"I don't want you to ask him. I would rather that you didn't say a
word to him about it. There is a debt too from that man Rubb which
they advise me to abandon."

In answer to this, Margaret could say nothing, for she knew well that
her trust in the interest of that money was the only hope she had of
any maintenance for her sister-in-law.

After a few minutes' silence he again spoke to her. "He desires to
know whether you want money for immediate use."

"Who wants to know?"

"Mr Slow."

"Oh no, John. I have money at the bankers', but I will not touch it."

"How much is there at the bankers?"

"There is more than three hundred pounds; but very little more;
perhaps three hundred and ten."

"You may have that."

"John, I don't want anything that is not my own; not though I had to
walk out to earn my bread in