"The heir! Do you mean Benja?"
"There's no other heir but he. Why did George leave me dependent upon him?"
"I don't quite understand you, my dear. In what way are you dependent upon Benja?"
"The four thousand a-year is paid to me as his guardian only,--as his guardian and Georgy's. I only remain at the Hall as Benja's guardian. It's all on sufferance."
"But, my dear, your husband had it not in his power to leave you comfortably off in any other manner. All the settlement he could make on you at your marriage--I really don't think it will amount to more than six hundred a-year--he did make. This, of course, is yours in addition; and it will be your child's after you."
"Think of the contrast," was the rejoinder; and Mrs. St. John's bosom heaved ominously, as if the wrong were almost too great to bear. "The one with his thousands upon thousands, his title, his state, everything that's high and mighty; the other, with his few poor hundreds and his obscurity."
"But, my dear Charlotte, there was no help for this. Benja was born to it, and Mr. Carleton could no more alter it than you could."
"It is not the less unjust."
"Unjust is not the right word. The law of entail may not be an equitable law, but Englishmen live under it, and must obey it. You should not blame your husband for this."
"I do not blame him for it."