that any sum you may think fit to name, and which you consider
sufficient to settle you in life, shall be yours."

"He sent you--he--the hypocrite! Was it not he who robbed me of my
father's love--he, who has robbed me of my natural claims to a portion
of my father's property? What! does the incendiary think that I am blind
to his treachery--that I am ignorant of the hand that struck me this
blow--that I will stoop to receive as a liberal donation, an act of
special favor, a modicum of that which ought to be my own? Mother, I
will starve before I can receive one farthing from him!"

"Do not be rash, my son"--

"Mother, I cannot be mean. It grieves me, dearest mother, that you
should undertake to be the bearer of this message to me."

"Are you not both my children?--though, God knows, not equally dear; and
ought not the welfare of both to be precious to the heart of a mother?
It is not so: Mark never had an equal share of my affections, and God
has punished me for my undue partiality, by making him the heir of all."

"But, mother, this was no fault of mine."

"True; but he has regarded it as a crime. You have robbed him of my
love, and he in revenge has robbed you of your fortune. Had I been a
kinder mother to him, he might have prized the gold less, and my
affection more. My conscience reproaches me as the author of your
present sufferings. Do not make my self-upbraidings more acute, by
refusing the assistance which your brother offers you."