’Yes, make another will—­or else alter that one.  But as to Miss Thorne coming here—­’

‘What!  Mary—­’

’Well, Mary.  As to Mary Thorne coming here, that I fear will not be possible.  She cannot have two homes.  She has cast her lot with one of her uncles, and she must remain with him now.’

‘Do you mean to say that she must have any relation but one?’

’But one such as I am.  She would not be happy over here.  She does not like new faces.  You have enough depending on you; I have but her.’

’Enough! why, I have only Louis Philippe.  I could provide for a dozen girls.’

‘Well, well, well, we will not talk about that.’

’Ah! but, Thorne, you have told me of this girl now, and I cannot but talk of her.  If you wished to keep the matter dark, you should have said nothing about it.  She is my niece as much as yours.  And, Thorne, I loved my sister Mary quite as well as you loved your brother; quite as well.’

Any one who might have heard and seen the contractor would have hardly thought him to be the same man who, a few hours before, was urging that the Barchester physician should be put under the pump.

‘You have your son, Scatcherd.  I have no one but that girl.’

’I don’t want to take her from you.  I don’t want to take her; but surely there can be no harm in her coming here to see us?  I can provide for her, Thorne, remember that.  I can provide for her without reference to Louis Philippe.  What are ten or fifteen thousand pounds to me?  Remember that, Thorne.’

Dr Thorne did remember it.  In that interview he remembered many things, and much passed through his mind on which he felt himself compelled to resolve somewhat too suddenly.  Would he be justified in rejecting, on behalf of Mary, the offer of pecuniary provision which this rich relative would be so well inclined to make?  Or, if he accepted it, would he in truth be studying her interests?  Scatcherd was a self-willed, obstinate man—­now indeed touched by unwonted tenderness; but he was one to whose lasting tenderness Dr Thorne would be very unwilling to trust his darling.  He did resolve, that on the whole he should best discharge his duty, even to her, by keeping her to himself, and rejecting, on her behalf, any participation in the baronet’s wealth.  As Mary herself had said, ’some people must be bound together;’ and their destiny, that of himself and his niece, seemed to have so bound them.  She had found her place at Greshamsbury, her place in the world; and it would be better for her now to keep it, than to go forth and seek another that would be richer, but at the same time less suited to her.

‘No, Scatcherd,’ he said at last, ’she cannot come here; she would not be happy here, and, to tell the truth I do not wish her to know that she has other relatives.’

’Ah! she would be ashamed of her mother, you mean, and of her mother’s brother too, eh?  She’s too fine a lady, I suppose, to take me by the hand and give me a kiss, and call me her uncle?  I and Lady Scatcherd would not be grand enough for her, eh?’