‘And I am quite ready to meet my responsibilities. Do you want me to marry the straw-plaiter down at Luton?’
‘No, no! I want you to do nothing but alter your mode of living, Frederick, and try and be a decent member of society. It is terrible to think how you go on, without care for yourself or others, without a thought of God, or the future that lies before you. If poor Sir Frederick Ascher had only foreseen the uses his money would have been put to, he would have thought twice before he left it to you.’
‘Yes! but, luckily for me, he didn’t foresee, so I can do as I like about it. Has Father Tasker a lecture in store for me as well?’ inquired Frederick, turning to the priest.
‘No! my son, we are not in the confessional, where I could wish we met oftener; but I would like to remind you that, although your late godfather made no actual conditions regarding the expenditure of the fortune he left you, yet his wishes, that it should be devoted to the church, were so strongly expressed, as almost to amount to a demand, and I cannot believe that any blessing will follow a different disposition of it.’
‘I have confessed to no intention of marrying, remember, but should I ever do so, my wife will be my church, and I shall settle my money upon her.’
But this was a blasphemy that neither Philip Walcheren nor the priest could pass over in silence.
‘Be careful, my son, be careful,’ cried the one, ‘lest the curse of Heaven, and the church you despise, are both provoked against you.’
‘I cannot believe, Frederick, that you seriously mean what you say,’ exclaimed his cousin. ‘The money is only yours for your lifetime, and, if you do not dedicate it to the holy church at your death, some fearful calamity will surely overtake you, or those to whom you wrongfully give it.’
‘Nonsense!’ replied Frederick; ‘I suppose you both mean well, but I would rather you understood me at once. As matters stand at present, I have not the slightest intention of leaving my money to the church. My godfather—peace to his ashes!—left it to me, and I recognise but one authority in the matter, and that is the law, which is on my side. I wonder, by the way, Philip, that you stick up so badly for the stability of the profession by which you live!’
‘Every consideration must give way to the claims of the church, Frederick!’