“My child, Monsieur Minoret wants to speak to you on a matter of business,” said Bongrand. “By the bye, don’t forget to give me your certificates; I shall go to Paris in the morning and will draw your dividend and La Bougival’s.”
“Cousin,” said Minoret, “our uncle accustomed you to more luxury than you have now.”
“We can be very happy with very little money,” she replied.
“I thought money might help your happiness,” continued Minoret, “and I have come to offer you some, out of respect for the memory of my uncle.”
“You had a natural way of showing respect for him,” said Ursula, sternly; “you could have left his house as it was, and allowed me to buy it; instead of that you put it at a high price, hoping to find some hidden treasure in it.”
“But,” said Minoret, evidently troubled, “if you had twelve thousand francs a year you would be in a position to marry well.”
“I have not got them.”
“But suppose I give them to you, on condition of your buying an estate in Brittany near Madame de Portenduere,—you could then marry her son.”
“Monsieur Minoret,” said Ursula, “I have no claim to that money, and I cannot accept it from you. We are scarcely relations, still less are we friends. I have suffered too much from calumny to give a handle for evil-speaking. What have I done to deserve that money? What reason have you to make me such a present? These questions, which I have a right to ask, persons will answer as they see fit; some would consider your gift the reparation of a wrong, and, as such, I choose not to accept it. Your uncle did not bring me up to ignoble feelings. I can accept nothing except from friends, and I have no friendship for you.”
“Then you refuse?” cried the colossus, into whose head the idea had never entered that a fortune could be rejected.