« said St John; »you must
really make an effort to tranquillize your feelings.«
    »Nonsense! and what sort of an effect will the bequest have on you? Will it
keep you in England, induce you to marry Miss Oliver, and settle down like an
ordinary mortal?«
    »You wander: your head becomes confused, I have been too abrupt in
communicating the news; it has excited you beyond your strength.«
    »Mr. Rivers! you quite put me out of patience; I am rational enough; it is
you who misunderstand; or rather who affect to misunderstand.«
    »Perhaps if you explained yourself a little more fully, I should comprehend
better.«
    »Explain! What is there to explain? You cannot fail to see that twenty
thousand pounds, the sum in question, divided equally between the nephew and
three nieces of our uncle, will give five thousand to each? What I want is, that
you should write to your sisters and tell them of the fortune that has accrued
to them.«
    »To you, you mean.«
    »I have intimated my view of the case: I am incapable of taking any other. I
am not brutally selfish, blindly unjust, or fiendishly ungrateful. Besides, I am
resolved I will have a home and connexions. I like Moor-House, and I will live
at Moor-House; I like Diana and Mary, and I will attach myself for life to Diana
and Mary. It would please and benefit me to have five thousand pounds; it would
torment and oppress me to have twenty thousand; which, moreover, could never be
mine in justice, though it might in law. I abandon to you, then, what is
absolutely superfluous to me. Let there be no opposition, and no discussion
about it; let us agree amongst each other, and decide the point at once.«
    »This is acting on first impulses; you must take days to consider such a
matter, ere your word can be regarded as valid.«
    »Oh! if all you doubt is my sincerity, I am easy: you see the justice of the
case?«
    »I do see a certain justice; but it is contrary to all custom. Besides, the
entire fortune is your right: my uncle gained it by his own efforts; he was free
to leave it to whom he would: he left it to you. After all, justice permits you
to keep it: you may, with a clear conscience, consider it absolutely your own.«
    »With me,
