"
"I knew what your feeling would be."
"Yes, John. You could not but know it well. But--" Then she paused
a moment, looking into his face. "But I should wish to know what
would become of it--eventually."
"If it were yours you could do what you pleased with it."
"But it would be yours."
"Then it would go with the rest of the property."
"To whom would it go? We have all to die, my dear, and who can say
whom it may please the Almighty to take first?"
"In this house, ma'am, every one can give a shrewd guess. I know my
own condition. If I die without children of my own every acre I
possess will go to the proper heir. Thinking as you do, you ought
to agree with me in that."
"But who is the proper heir?"
"My cousin Reginald. Do not let us contest it, ma'am. As certainly
as I lie here he will have Bragton when I am gone."
"Will you not listen to me, John?"
"Not about that. How could I die in peace were I to rob him?"
"It is all your own,--to do as you like with."
"It is all my own, but not to do as I like with. With your
feelings, with your ideas, how can you urge me to such an
injustice?"
"Do I want it for myself? I do not even want it for any one
belonging to me. There is your cousin Peter."
"If he were the heir he should have it,--though I know nothing of
him and believe him to be but a poor creature and very unfit to
have the custody of a family property.
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