than his silence. His smile told her that he
believed her to be lying. Nevertheless she went on. She was not fool
enough to suppose that the whole nature of the man was to be changed
by a few words from her. So she went on. The marriage was a thing
fixed, and she was thinking of settlements, and had been talking to
lawyers about a new will.

"I do not know that I can help you," said Barty, finding that a
longer pause than usual made some word from him absolutely necessary.

"I am going on to that, and I regret that my story should detain
you so long, Mr. Burgess." And she did go on. She had, she said,
made some saving out of her income. She was not going to trouble Mr.
Burgess with this matter,--only that she might explain to him that
what she would at once give to the young couple, and what she would
settle on Dorothy after her own death, would all come from such
savings, and that such gifts and bequests would not diminish the
family property. Barty again smiled as he heard this, and Miss
Stanbury in her heart likened him to the devil in person. But still
she went on. She was very desirous that Brooke Burgess should
come and live at Exeter. His property would be in the town and
the neighbourhood. It would be a seemly thing,--such were her
words,--that he should occupy the house that had belonged to his
grandfather and his great-grandfather; and then, moreover,--she
acknowledged that she spoke selfishly,--she dreaded the idea of being
left alone for the remainder of her own years. Her proposition at
last was uttered. It was simply this, that Barty Burgess should give
to his nephew, Brooke, his share in the bank.

"I am damned, if I do!" said Barty Burgess, rising up from his chair.

But before he had left the room he had agreed to consider the
proposition. Miss Stanbury had of course known that any such
suggestion coming from her without an adequate reason assigned, would
have been mere idle wind. She was prepared with such adequate reason.
If Mr. Burgess could see his way to make the proposed transfer of his
share of the bank business, she, Miss Stanbury, would hand over to
him, for his life, a certain proportion of the Burgess property which
lay in the city, the income of which would exceed that drawn by him
from the business. Would he, at his time of life, take that for doing
nothing which he now got for working hard? That was the meaning of
it. And then, too, as far as the portion of the property went,--and
it