Mr Hogarths Will | Page 7

brought up to
expect?"
"Thirty pounds a year to begin with," said Jane, half aloud; "250
pounds after seventeen years' work. Very sweet--all one's own earning.
I am not afraid, only let Elsie keep up heart."
"I cannot," said Elsie; "I'll be dead long before seventeen years are
over."
"I will take good care of you," said Jane.
"How are you to take good care either of yourself or of me if we are
starving?" said Elsie, with a fresh burst of tears.
"We will do our best. So you are going, Mr. Hogarth. Write to me if
you can hear of anything for me. I will be much obliged to you.
Good-bye."
Jane shook hands with her cousin kindly, and soon after Mr.
MacFarlane, and Mr. Baird also, withdrew, leaving the sisters alone.
Elsie wept till she was completely exhausted, while her sister sat at the
table with pen and ink and paper before her, but writing nothing.
After a while Elsie started up from the sofa. "Jane," said she, "if we
were to marry, it would put an end to all this perplexity. It was strange

that uncle put in the clause forbidding us to marry that man. Neither of
us would demean ourselves so much, but uncle disliked the marriage of
near relatives. How strange that so little is said about the mother. I
could not look at him, but you did. Is he like his father? My uncle was a
very handsome man; I fancy this man is plain."
"I see little or no likeness to my uncle, but he is by no means
plain-looking."
"Will he get into society? Do they consider such people legitimate?"
"The marriage was irregular, but legal," said Jane. "I see now the cause
my uncle had to dislike the Scotch marriage law. He must have been
made very miserable from some unguarded words spoken or written;
but this does not prevent his son taking the position of a legitimate heir.
He is quiet and unassuming, and will take a very good place in
society."
"It was well," said Elsie, with a faint laugh, "that this clause was
inserted, for you seem to be in some danger."
"Not at all; but we were thrown together in very extraordinary
circumstances, and I could not help feeling for his position as he felt for
ours. Nor could I help asking for advice from him. I agree with my
uncle about cousins. He was right there, as he always used to be. At
least, he brought me up to think like him, and I can scarcely believe
that what he has now done is wrong."
"But, Jane, setting this cousin out of the way, what do you think of
William Dalzell?"
"I was just thinking of him when you spoke," said Jane, resolutely.
"Uncle must have had him in his mind when he mentioned
fortune-hunters in his will, for he never seemed to like him coming
here so often; and just six weeks ago I had been going out riding with
him every day. You said you were not well, and would not accompany
us. I suppose I was giving him what people consider a great deal of

encouragement. If my uncle had said plainly that he disapproved of the
intimacy, I wonder if I would have given it up? Perhaps not--one does
not like to be dictated to. It appeared to myself so strange that he
should prefer me to you. And now I recollect that my uncle must have
paid his last visit to Edinburgh just before he made his will; and there
he would see this young man filling his place in the world so well,
while I was behaving so foolishly. The contrast must have struck him,
and he certainly has put an end to everything between Mr. Dalzell and
myself."
"Oh, Jane, he is no fortune-hunter; this will make no change. If you
marry him you must take me home with you, and tell him it is what I
deserve for standing his friend so well."
"My dearest Elsie, you have talked a great deal about Mr. Dalzell, and I
have rather foolishly listened to it, but that must be stopped now. I
know he is poor; he thought to better himself by a wealthy marriage;
and perhaps if I had been left now with 20,000 pounds, with nothing to
do and nothing to think of, his agreeable qualities----"
"Well, you own he has agreeable qualities."
"Yes; I have always owned it--they might have induced me to marry
him; and you, as the possessor of other 20,000 pounds, would have
been a most welcome inmate of our house until you chose for yourself
your own home. But now, Elsie, I know William Dalzell is not the man
to encumber himself with