‘What, would you have robbed us of our few happy months?’

’It was your uncle whom I robbed; he would otherwise have come home like a good genius; but he found you all happy without him, and with no gratitude to spare for him.  And there he sits at the head of that long melancholy table, trying to bring back days that have gone too far ever to be recalled, and only raising their spectres in this mocking finery; scarcely one man present, whose welcome comes from his heart; his mother past the days of heeding the display, except for his sake; his nephew rejecting him; you indignant and miserable.  Oh, Clara!  I never saw more plainly money given for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not.  Empty and hollow as the pageant was, I could better bear to take my part in it, so far as truth would let me, than tell that poor man that the last of his brother’s children rejects him and his benefits.’

‘At this rate, you will make a hero of Uncle Oliver.’

’It is because he is one of this world’s heroes that he is distasteful to you.’

‘I don’t understand.’

’Exclusive devotion to one object, grand though it was, has made him the man he appears to us.  Think what the spirit must have been that conceived and carried out such a design!  Depend upon it there is a greatness in him, which may show, when, as dear granny says, she has cured him of all he learnt away from home.  I think that must be the work for which you are all brought together here.’

’But I can’t thrust out Jem.  I won’t stay here on those terms.  I shall protest—­’

’It is not graceful to make an uproar about your own magnanimity, nor to talk of what is to happen after a man’s death.  You don’t come here to be heiress, but to take care of your grandmother.  There is no need to disturb the future, unless, to be sure, you were obliged to explain your expectations.’

‘Ah! to be sure, any way I could restore it all to James.’

’Or, better still, you may yet be able to draw the uncle and nephew together, and bring back peace and union.’

‘Then I must stay and bear all this, you think?’

‘As a mere matter of obedience, certainly.’

Clara’s countenance fell.

’That may deprive it of the brilliance of a voluntary sacrifice; but, after all, it is what makes your course safe and plain.’

‘And very dismal, just because no one will believe so.’

‘So the safer for humility,’ said Louis.  ’Perhaps the dear old Terrace did not offer training and trial enough.  I try to believe something of the kind in my own case.  If choice had been mine, I should hardly have been exactly what I am; and you know how my chief happiness has been put far from me; but I can imagine that to be at the summit of my wishes might foster my sluggishness, and that I might rest too much on better judgment than my own, if it were beside me.  Probation maybe safer than joy; and you may do more good to yourself and others than even under Isabel’s wing.  Only think of the means in your hands, and all the wretched population round!  There will be some hope of help for the curate now—­besides, I shall know where to come for subscriptions next time I run crazy about any wonderful charity.’