ways
called Sir Thomas his uncle, though latterly he had ceased to do so.

"He is very ill; very ill indeed," said Herbert. This was a subject
in which Owen had certainly a right to feel interested, seeing that
his own investiture would follow immediately on the death of Sir
Thomas; but Herbert almost felt that the question might as well have
been spared. It had been asked, however, almost solely with the view
of gaining some few moments.

"Herbert," he said at last, standing up from his chair, as he made an
effort to begin his speech, "I don't know how far you will believe
me when I tell you that all this news has caused me great sorrow. I
grieve for your father and your mother, and for you, from the very
bottom of my heart."

"It is very kind of you," said Herbert. "But the blow has fallen, and
as for myself, I believe that I can bear it. I do not care so very
much about the property."

"Nor do I;" and now Owen spoke rather louder, and with his own look
of strong impulse about his mouth and forehead. "Nor do I care so
much about the property. You were welcome to it; and are so still. I
have never coveted it from you, and do not covet it."

"It will be yours now without coveting," replied Herbert; and then
there was another pause, during which Herbert sat still, while Owen
stood leaning with his back against the mantelpiece.

"Herbert," said he, after they had thus remained silent for two or
three minutes, "I have made up my mind on this matter, and I will
tell you truly what I do desire, and what I do not. I do not desire
your inheritance, but I do desire that Clara Desmond shall be my
wife."

"Owen," said the other, also getting up, "I did not expect when I
came here that you would have spoken to me about this."

"It was that we might speak about this that I asked you to come here.
But listen to me. When I say that I want Clara Desmond to be my wife,
I mean to say that I want that, and that only. It may be true that I
am, or shall be, legally the heir to your father's estate. Herbert,
I will relinquish all that, because I do not feel it to be my own. I
will relinquish it in any way that may separate myself from it most
thoroughly. But in return, do you separate yourself from her who was
my own before you had ever known her."

And thus he did make the proposition as to which he had been making
up his mind since the morning on which Mr. Prendergast had come to
him.

Herbert for a while was struck dumb wit