"I am attached to you; it is easy to be good to those one loves. I have never had a child of my own; you stand to me in the place of a son."
"But in reality I am not related to you," he answered.
She frowned slightly.
"There are relations of the heart," she said then. "You have touched my heart. There is nothing I would not do for you."
Again he said: "You are very kind."
She was silent for half a minute, then she proceeded: "You are my heir."
He fidgeted.
"Do not speak until I have finished. I do not like to be interrupted. You are my heir, and I mean to settle upon you immediately one thousand pounds a year for your own expenses. You can do what you please with that money."
"It is a great deal too much," he said.
"It is not; it is what you ought to have. You can give some of it to your mother—not a great deal, but a little—and the rest you can spend on yourself, or you can hoard it, just as you like."