was both generous and disinterested. She pressed her parents to allow
her, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, to renounce the
bequest, inasmuch as she thought that Mr. Hamilton's relatives had a
stronger and prior claim. This, however, they peremptorily refused to
do.

"I care not for money," said her father, "nor have I much to spare;
but you must consider, my dear Alice, that the act upon the part of Mr.
Hamilton was a spontaneous demise of his own property, as a reward to
you on behalf of his daughter, for the affection which you bore her, and
which subsisted between you. You were her nurse, her friend, her sister;
you tended her night and day during her long illness, even to the injury
of your health, and almost at the risk of your very life. Suppose,
for instance, that Mr. Hamilton had had male heirs; in that case, the
Lindsays would have been just as they are, perhaps not so well; for he
might not have left them even a legacy. Then, they unjustly tax us with
fraud, circumvention, and the practice of undue influence; and, indeed,
have endeavored to stamp an indelible stain upon your character and
honor. Every man, my dear, as the proverb has it, is at liberty to
do what he pleases with his own, according to his free will, and a
reasonable disposition. Let me hear no more of this, then, but enjoy
with gratitude that which God and your kind friend have bestowed upon
you."

We need not assure our readers that the Lindsays henceforth were
influenced by an unfriendly feeling toward the Goodwins, and that
all intercourse between the families terminated. On the part of Mrs.
Lindsay, this degenerated into a spirit of the most intense hatred and
malignity. To this enmity, however, there were exceptions in the family,
and strong ones, too, as the reader will perceive in the course of the