"_You_ have no cause to complain," said his sister with a meaning
glance, and Garvington suddenly subsided.

"Won't you say something, Noel?" asked Lady Garvington dismally.

"I don't see what there is to say," he rejoined, not lifting his eyes
from the ground.

"There you are wrong," remarked Agnes with a sudden flush. "There is a
very great deal to say, but this is not the place to say it. Mr.
Jarwin," she rose to her feet, looking a queenly figure in her long
black robes, "you can return to town and later will receive my
instructions."

The lawyer looked hard at her marble face, wondering whether she would
choose the lover or the money. It was a hard choice, and a very
difficult position. He could not read in her eyes what she intended to
do, so mutely bowed and took a ceremonious departure, paying a silent
tribute to the widow's strength of mind. "Poor thing; poor thing,"
thought the solicitor, "I believe she loves her cousin. It is hard that
she can only marry him at the cost of becoming a pauper. A difficult
position for her, indeed. H'm! she'll hold on to the money, of course;
no woman would be such a fool as to pay two millions sterling for a
husband."

In relation to nine women out of ten, this view would have been a
reasonable one to take, but Agnes happened to be the tenth, who had the
singular taste--madness some would have called it--to prefer love to
hard cash. Still, she made no hasty decision, seeing that the issues
involved in her renunciation were so great. Garvington, showing a
characteristic want of tact, began to argue the question almost the
moment Jarwin drove away from The Manor, but his sister promptly
declined to enter into any discussion.

"You and Jane can go away," said she, cutting him short. "I wish to have
a private conversation with Noel."

"For heaven's sake don't give up the money," whispered Garvington in an
agonized tone when at the door.

"I sold myself once to help the family," she replied in the same low
voice; "but I am not so sure that I am ready to do so twice."

"Quite right, dear," said Lady Garvington, patting the widow's hand. "It
is better to have love than money. Besides, it only means that Freddy
will have to give up eating rich dinners which don't agree with him."

"Come away, you fool!" cried Freddy, exasperated, and, seizing her arm,
he drew her out of the room, growling like a sick bear.

Agnes closed the door, and returned to look at Lambert, who stil