have
been, and may yet be, contented with concessions involving nothing
wrong. His way of life can hardly have taught him to appreciate
James's scruples, as we do; and even if right and wrong were more
neatly partitioned between them than I think they are, it would still
be hard on him to find this destined heir spurning his benefits.'

'What are you coming to, Louis! You think James right?

'I would give the world to think so, Clara. One motive is too high for
praise, the other--No, I will say nothing of it. But I could wish I
had not precipitated matters last year.'

'What, would you have robbed us of our few happy months?'

'It was your uncle whom I robbed; he would otherwise have come home
like a good genius; but he found you all happy without him, and with no
gratitude to spare for him. And there he sits at the head of that long
melancholy table, trying to bring back days that have gone too far ever
to be recalled, and only raising their spectres in this mocking finery;
scarcely one man present, whose welcome comes from his heart; his
mother past the days of heeding the display, except for his sake; his
nephew rejecting him; you indignant and miserable. Oh, Clara! I never
saw more plainly money given for that which is not bread, and labour
for that which satisfieth not. Empty and hollow as the pageant was, I
could better bear to take my part in it, so far as truth would let me,
than tell that poor man that the last of his brother's children rejects
him and his benefits.'

'At this rate, you will make a hero of Uncle Oliver.'

'It is because he is one of this world's heroes that he is distasteful
to you.'

'I don't understand.'

'Exclusive devotion to one object, grand though it was, has made him
the man he appears to us. Think what the spirit must have been that
conceived and carried out such a design! Depend upon it there is a
greatness in him, which may show, when, as dear granny says, she has
cured him of all he learnt away from home. I think that must be the
work for which you are all brought together here.'

'But I can't thrust out Jem. I won't stay here on those terms. I
shall protest--'

'It is not graceful to make an uproar about your own magnanimity, nor
to talk of what is to happen after a man's death. You don't come here
to be heiress, but to take care of your grandmother. There is no need
to disturb the future, unless, to be sure, you were obliged to explain
your expectations.