ent friendly
intercourse with the rector as an opportunity for communicating with
him, in the mildest way, the purport of Grandcourt's will, so as to
save him the additional shock that would be in store for him if he
carried his illusions all the way home. Perhaps Sir Hugo would have
been communicable enough without that kind motive, but he really felt
the motive. He broke the unpleasant news to the rector by degrees: at
first he only implied his fear that the widow was not so splendidly
provided for as Mr. Gascoigne, nay, as the baronet himself had
expected; and only at last, after some previous vague reference to
large claims on Grandcourt, he disclosed the prior relations which, in
the unfortunate absence of a legitimate heir, had determined all the
splendor in another direction.

The rector was deeply hurt, and remembered, more vividly than he had
ever done before, how offensively proud and repelling the manners of
the deceased had been toward him--remembered also that he himself, in
that interesting period just before the arrival of the new occupant at
Diplow, had received hints of former entangling dissipations, and an
undue addiction to pleasure, though he had not foreseen that the
pleasure which had probably, so to speak, been swept into private
rubbish-heaps, would ever present itself as an array of live
caterpillars, disastrous to the green meat of respectable people. But
he did not make these retrospective thoughts audible to Sir Hugo, or
lower himself by expressing any indignation on merely personal grounds,
but behaved like a man of the world who had become a conscientious
clergyman. His first remark was--

"When a young man makes his will in health, he usually counts on living
a long while. Probably Mr. Grandcourt did not believe that this will
would ever have its present effect." After a moment, he added, "The
effect is painful in more ways than one. Female morality is likely to
suffer from this marked advantage and prominence being given to
illegitimate offspring."

"Well, in point of fact," said Sir Hugo, in his comfortable way, "since
the boy is there, this was really the best alternative for the disposal
of the estates. Grandcourt had nobody nearer than his cousin. And it's
a chilling thought that you go out of this life only for the benefit of
a cousin. A man gets a little pleasure in making his will, if it's for
the good of his own curly heads; but it's a nuisance when you're giving
the bequeath