," said his uncle, "I wonder whether you really care about
money? sometimes I have almost thought that you don't."

"I don't think I do very much, sir."

"Then you must be a great fool."

"I have often thought I am, lately."

"A very great fool. People preach against it, and talk against it,
and write against it, and tell lies against it; but don't you see
that everybody is fighting for it? The parsons all abuse it; but did
you ever know one who wouldn't go to law for his tithes? Did you ever
hear of a bishop who didn't take his dues?"

"I am quite fond enough of it, sir, to take all that I can earn."

"That does not seem to be much, George. You haven't played your cards
well--have you, my boy?"

"No, uncle; not very well. I might have done better."

"No man is respected without money--no man. A poor man is always
thrust to the wall--always. Now you will be a poor man, I fear, all
your life."

"Then I must put up with the wall, sir."

"But why were you so harsh with me when I wanted you to marry her? Do
you see now what you have done? Look at her, and what she might have
been. Look at yourself, and what you might have been. Had you done
that, you might have been my heir in everything."

"Well, sir, I have made my bed, and I must lie upon it. I have cause
enough for regret--though, to tell the truth, it is not about your
money."

"Ah, I knew you would be stiff to the last," said Mr. Bertram, angry
that he could not move his nephew to express some sorrow about the
half-million.

"Am I stiff, sir? Indeed, I do not mean it."

"No, it's your nature. But we will not quarrel at the last; will we,
George?"

"I hope not, sir. I am not aware that we have ever quarrelled. You
once asked me to do a thing which, had I done it, would have made me
a happy man--"

"And a rich man also."

"And I fairly tell you now, that I would I had done as you would have
had me. That is not being stiff, sir."

"It is too late now, George."

"Oh, yes, it is too late now; indeed it is."

"Not but that I could put a codicil."

"Ah, sir, you can put no codicil that can do me a service. No codicil
can make her a free woman. There are sorrows, sir, which no codicil
can cure."

"Psha!" said his uncle, trying in his anger to turn himself on his
bed, but failing utterly. "Psha! Then you may live a pauper."

George remained standing at the bedside; but he knew not what to do,
or what answer to make to this ebullition of anger.