would come at all."

"Oh, yes; I was certain to come. You have hardly received as yet any
official notification that your cause has been lost."

"It was not my cause, John," she said, smiling, "and I received no
other notification than what I got through Mrs Mackenzie. Indeed, as
you know, I have regarded this law business as nonsense all through.
Since what you and Mr Slow told me, I have known that the property
was yours."

"But it was quite necessary to have a judgment."

"I suppose so, and there's an end of it. I, for one, am not in the
least disappointed,--if it will give you any comfort to know that."

"I don't believe that any other woman in England would have lost her
fortune with the equanimity that you have shown."

She could not explain to him that, in the first days of dismay caused
by that misfortune, he had given her such consolation as to make her
forget her loss, and that her subsequent misery had been caused by
the withdrawal of that consolation. She could not tell him that the
very memory of her money had been, as it were, drowned by other hopes
in life,--by other hopes and by other despair. But when he praised
her for her equanimity, she thought of this. She still smiled as she
heard his praise.

"I suppose I ought to return the compliment," she said, "and declare
that no cousin who had been kept so long out of his own money
ever behaved so well as you have done. I can assure you that I
have thought of it very often,--of the injustice that has been
involuntarily done to you."

"It has been unjust, has it not?" said he, piteously, thinking of his
injuries. "So much of it has gone in that oilcloth business, and all
for nothing!"

"I'm glad at any rate that Walter's share did not go."

He knew that this was not the kind of conversation which he had
desired to commence, and that it must be changed before anything
could be settled. So he shook himself and began again.

"And now, Margaret, as the lawyers have finished their part of the
business, ours must begin."

She had been standing hitherto and had felt herself to be strong
enough to stand, but at the sound of these words her knees had become
weak under her, and she found a retreat upon the sofa. Of course she
said nothing as he came and stood over her.

"I hope you have understood," he continued, "that while all this was
going on I could propose no arrangement of any kind."

"I know you have been very much troubled."

"Indeed I have