thing against it,' said the young man, with much emotion.
'It is too generous to be talked of, and these are not matters of choice,
but duty; but is it not possible to make some compensation?'

'I have done my best to lay up for those children,' said Honor; 'but his
sister will need her full half, and my City property has other claimants.
I own I should be glad to secure that, after me, he should not be
entirely dependent upon health which, I fear, will never be sound again.'

'I know you would be happier in arranging it yourself, though he has
every claim on my gratitude. Could not the estate be charged with an
annuity to him?'

'Thank you!' said Honor, warmly. 'Such a provision will suit him best.
I see that London is his element; indeed, he is so much incapacitated for
a country life that the estate would have been a burthen to him, could he
have rightly inherited it. He is bent on self-maintenance; and all I
wish is, that when I am gone, he should have sonething to fall back
upon.'

'I do not think that I can thank you more heartily for any of your
benefits than for making me a party to this!' he warmly said. 'But there
is no thanking you; I must try to do so by deeds.'

She was forced to allow that her Atheling was winning upon her!

'Two points I liked,' she said to Robert, who spent the evening with her,
while Owen was dining with Mr. Currie--'one that he accepted the Holt as
a charge, not a gift--the other that he never professed to be marrying
for _my_ sake.'

'Yes, he is as true as Phoebe,' said Robert. 'Both have real power of
truth from never deceiving themselves. They perfectly suit one another.'

'High praise from you, Robin. Yet how could you forgive his declaration
from so unequal a position?'

'I thought it part of his consistently honest dealing. Had she been a
mere child, knowing nothing of the world, and subject to parents, it
might have been otherwise; but independent and formed as she is, it was
but just to avow his sentiments, and give her the choice of waiting.'

'In spite of the obloquy of a poor man paying court to wealth?'

'I fancy he was too single-minded for that idea, and that it was not
wealth which he courted was proved by his rejection of Mervyn's offer.
Do you know, I think his refusal will do Mervyn a great deal of good. He
is very restless to find out the remaining objections to his management,
and Randolf will have more influence with him than I ever could, while