It was of course needful that the true condition of affairs should be revealed to Hermione, but nobody was anxious to undertake the task, and Hermione was long in reappearing. Mr. Fitzalan had to depart, on account of another engagement; and Mr. Selwyn was compelled to catch a certain train to London from a similar reason. Therefore, when Hermione did at length come downstairs, Harvey alone was at hand.
He could not make up his mind to go into the question with her. Harvey always shirked disagreeable duties if possible, and this duty seemed to him especially disagreeable.
No doubt there lay lurking at the back of his disinclination a distinct consciousness of what would be expected of him. He did not suppose for a moment that Mr. Selwyn would publish the fact of the twenty thousand pounds which might have been Hermione's. Probably no living person except himself and Mr. Selwyn would know it. The letter had not been shown even to Mr. Fitzalan, seated in the same room with themselves. But everybody would be aware that Mr. Dalrymple had not intended to leave his darling portionless.
It would have been an easy thing for Harvey to say to his cousin, "Hermione, your grandfather meant to make ample provision for you, and as he has been taken away before carrying out his intention, I will do it instead."
The difficulty in the way of such a speech was that Harvey had not made up his mind. He meant to do something, certainly, but the question was—what?—how much?
He would consider the matter, would perhaps consult Julia. Apart from the specified twenty thousand pounds, "ample provision" could mean no paltry sum. And the estate was not one which would endure unlimited demands. Harvey had been a degree disappointed at the income which would be his. He had expected more.
Not that he was an avaricious man in the bold sense of the world. He was simply a man who valued money for what it would buy, who liked to get and to have whatever ministered to his comfort or pleased his fancy, who never could be happy with less than the best of everything. This of necessity means the command of considerable wealth. Harvey would do any kindness to anybody, so long as it was not too much trouble—Mr. Fitzalan had spoken thus of him truly— but his own needs were always first supplied, and his own wishes might never go unfulfilled. The word "self-denial" did not exist in Harvey's vocabulary. He would now have Hermione on his hands, besides his wife's relatives. These things had to be weighed in the scale. While Mr. Dalrymple yet lived, he had of course the right to settle what he chose of his own upon Hermione; but Harvey counted twenty thousand pounds an unduly large amount, considering the heavy expenses involved in the keeping up of Westford estate—an amount so large that it really seemed as if the old man's mind must have been a good deal weakened before he could arrive at so startling a decision.
This was a comfortable view of the question for Harvey, helping him to shake off the incubus of the private letter to Mr. Selwyn, together with the feeling that in some measure he might be counted morally bound to carry out his uncle's intention. Legally of course he was free. The law could not touch him. But there is a moral side to everything as well as a legal side, and the question of right and wrong thrust itself obtrusively before Harvey's averted gaze, insisting on being seen whether he would or no.
Well, and he meant to do his duty, of course—who could doubt it?—his duty as a gentleman and a man of honour. Opinions might differ as to what constituted his duty, as to what was for him "the right," and there he must be permitted to decide for himself. Certainly he did not intend to subtract twenty thousand pounds from the estate, neither would Mr. Dalrymple have contemplated any such step but for the weakness of old age. Harvey very soon regarded this as a settled truth. But he meant to make "ample provision" for his young cousin.
If "ample provision" for Hermione should imply a call for the curtailing of his own expenditure—