can you blame the living?"

"Sir, I considered myself bound by my uncle's prayer to keep my hand and
heart disengaged, that this title--miserable and barren distinction
though it be!--might, as he so ardently desired, descend to Evelyn. I
had a right to expect similar honour upon her side!"

"Surely, my lord, you, to whom the late lord on his death-bed confided
all the motives of his conduct and the secret of his life, cannot but be
aware that, while desirous of promoting your worldly welfare, and uniting
in one line his rank and his fortune, your uncle still had Evelyn's
happiness at heart as his warmest wish; you must know that, if that
happiness were forfeited by a marriage with you, the marriage became but
a secondary consideration. Lord Vargrave's will in itself was a proof of
this. He did not impose as an absolute condition upon Evelyn her union
with yourself; he did not make the forfeiture of her whole wealth the
penalty of her rejection of that alliance. By the definite limit of the
forfeit, he intimated a distinction between a command and a desire. And
surely, when you consider all circumstances, your lordship must think
that, what with that forfeit and the estate settled upon the title, your
uncle did all that in a worldly point of view equity and even affection
could exact from him."

Vargrave smiled bitterly, but said nothing.

"And if this be doubted, I have clearer proof of his intentions. Such
was his confidence in Lady Vargrave, that in the letter he addressed to
her before his death, and which I now submit to your lordship, you will
observe that he not only expressly leaves it to Lady Vargrave's
discretion to communicate to Evelyn that history of which she is at