“That is a small matter,” she answered.  “You need not worry about it in the least.  And you know in your heart, my dear, you need not.  I have had plenty of time to think over this, and I have thought over it.  And I am very ready and willing to come between you and any temporal trouble of that sort.  As to Daniel, when he hears that you are going to marry and always meant to do so, it must entirely change his view of the situation.  He is just and reasonable.  None can deny that.”

“You needn’t build on Daniel, however.  I’d rather break stones than go back to the Mill after what he said to me.”

“Leave him, then.  Leave him out of your calculation and come to me.  As I tell you, I’ve thought about it a great deal, and first I think Sabina is well suited to be a good wife to you.  With time and application she will become a woman that any man might be proud to marry.  I say that without prejudice, because I honestly think it.  She is adaptable, and, I believe, would very quickly develop into a woman in every way worthy of your real self.  And I am prepared to give you five hundred a year, Raymond.  After all, why not?  All that I have is yours and your brother’s, some day.  And since you need it now, you shall have it now.”

At another time he had been moved by this generosity; to-night, knowing what it embraced, he was not so grateful as he might have been.  His instinct was to protest that he would not marry Sabina; but shame prevented him from speaking, since he could advance no decent reason for such a change of mind.  He felt vaguely, dimly at the bottom of his soul that, despite events, he ought not to marry her.  He believed, apart from his own intense aversion from so doing now, that marriage with him would not in the long run conduce to Sabina’s happiness.  But where were the words capable of lending any conviction to such a sentiment?  Certainly he could think of none that would change his aunt’s opinion.

Sullenly he accepted her view with outward acknowledgment and inward resentment.  Then she said a thing that nearly made him rebel, since it struck at his pride, indicated that Miss Ironsyde was sure of her ground, showed that she had assumed the outcome of their meeting before the event.

First, however, he thanked her.

“Of course, it is amazingly good and kind.  I don’t like to accept it.  But I suppose it would hurt you more if I didn’t than if I do.  It’s a condition naturally that I marry Sabina—­I quite understand that.  Well, I must then.  I might have been a better friend to her if I hadn’t married; and might love her better and love her longer for that matter.  But, of course, I can’t expect you to understand that.  I only want to be sporting, and a man’s idea of being sporting isn’t the same—­”