"No, Sir Henry. That she could not do. From doing that she is utterly debarred. But I tell you once for all that I have no battle. You shall know more—if the knowledge will do you any good. Not very long since my uncle offered to settle on me half his fortune if I would oblige him in one particular. But I could not do the thing he wanted; and when we parted, I had his positive assurance that he would leave me nothing. That was the last time I saw him." And as Bertram remembered what that request was to which he had refused to accede, his brow also grew black.
"Tell me honestly, then, if you can be honest in the matter, who is to have his money?"
"I can be very honest, for I know nothing. My belief is that neither you nor I will have a shilling of it."
"Well, then; I'll tell you what. Of course you know that Lady Harcourt is down there?"
"Yes; I know that she is at Hadley."
"I'll not submit to be treated in this way. I have been a deuced sight too quiet, because I have not chosen to disturb him in his illness. Now I will have an answer from him. I will know what he means to do; and if I do not know by to-morrow night, I will go down, and will, at any rate, bring my wife away with me. I wish you to tell him that I want to know what his intentions are. I have a right to demand as much."
"Be that as it may, you have no right to demand anything through me."
"I have ruined myself—or nearly so, for that woman."
"I wonder, Harcourt, that you do not see that I am not the man you should select to speak to on such a subject."
"You are the man, because you are her cousin. I went to enormous expense to give her a splendid home, knowing, of course, that his wealth would entitle her to it. I bought a house for her, and furnished it as though she were a duchess—"