burden, and with the L4000 Mr Owen would,
no doubt, be able at once to provide a home for her. But Mr Owen
could hardly do this without some help. And even though Mr Owen
should be so generous,--and thus justify the name of "softie" which
Mrs Brodrick would sometimes give him in discussing his character
with her own daughters,--how preferable would it be to have a
relation well-provided! To Mrs Brodrick the girl's objection was
altogether unintelligible. The more of a Philistine Cousin Henry was,
the more satisfaction should there be in fleecing him. To refuse
a legacy because it was not formal was, to her thinking, an act
of insanity. To have the payment of one refused to her because of
informality would have been heart-breaking. But the making of such
a difficulty as this she could not stomach. Could she have had her
will, she would have been well pleased to whip the girl! Therefore
Isabel's new home was not pleasant to her.

At this time Mr Owen was away, having gone for his holiday to the
Continent. To all the Brodricks it was a matter of course that he
would marry Isabel as soon as he came back. There was no doubt that
he was "a softie." But then how great is the difference between
having a brother-in-law well off, and a relation tightly constrained
by closely limited means! To refuse,--even to make a show of
refusing,--those good things was a crime against the husband who
was to have them. Such was the light in which Mrs Brodrick looked
at it. To Mr Brodrick himself there was an obstinacy in it which
was sickening to him. But to Isabel's thinking the matter was very
different. She was as firmly resolved that she would not marry Mr
Owen as that she would not take her cousin's money;--almost as firmly
resolved.

Then there came the angry letter from Cousin Henry, containing two
points which had to be considered. There was the offer to her to come
to Llanfeare, and live there as though she was herself the owner.
That, indeed, did not require much consideration. It was altogether
out of the question, and only dwelt in her thoughts as showing how
quickly the man had contrived to make himself odious to every one
about the place. His uncle, he said, had made the place a nest of
hornets to him. Isabel declared that she knew why the place was a
nest of hornets. There was no one about Llanfeare to whom so unmanly,
so cringing, so dishonest a creature would not be odious. She could
understand all that.

But then there w