“Then take her from my hands. Why do you look so astonished? Have you forgotten my little boast?” Then, in a very different tone, “You will love your poor mother still, when you are married? You will say, 'I owe her my wife,' will you not?”
Henry was so puzzled he could not reply even to this touching appeal, made with eyes full of tears at the thought of parting with him.
Mrs. Little proceeded to explain: “Let me begin at the beginning. Dr. Amboyne has shown me I was more to blame than your uncle, was. Would you believe it? although he refused your poor father the trust-money, he went that moment to get L2000 of his own, and lend it to us. Oh, Henry, when Dr Amboyne told me that, and opened my eyes, I could have thrown myself at poor Guy's feet. I have been the most to blame in our unhappy quarrel; and I have sent Dr. Amboyne to say so. Now, Henry, my brother will forgive me, the doctor says; and, oh, my heart yearns to be reconciled. You will not stand in my way, dearest?”
“Not likely. Why, I am under obligations to him, for my part.”
“Yes, but Dr. Amboyne says dear Guy is deeply mortified by your refusal to be his heir. For my sake, for your own sake, and for Grace Carden's sake; change your mind now.”
“What, go into his house, and wait for dead men's shoes! Find myself some day wishing in my heart that noble old fellow would die! Such a life turns a man's stomach even to think of it.”
“No, no. Dr. Amboyne says that Mr. Bayne can conduct your business here, and hand you a little income, without your meddling.”
“That is true.”
“And, as for your patents, gentlemen can sell them to traders, or lease them out. My brother would make a settlement on Grace and you—she is his goddaughter—now that is all Mr. Carden demands. Then you could marry, and, on your small present income, make a little tour together; and dispose of your patents in other places.”
“I could do great things with them in the United States.”