Mary. It would please and benefit me to have five thousand pounds; it would torment and oppress me to have twenty thousand; which, moreover, could never be mine in justice, though it might in law. * I abandon to you, then, what is absolutely superfluous to me. * Let there be no opposition, and no discussion about it; let us agree amongst each other, and decide the
“This is acting on first impulses; you must take days to consider such a matter, ere your word can be regarded as valid.”
“Oh! if all you doubt is my sincerity, I am easy: you see the justice of the case?”
“I do see a certain justice; but it is contrary to all custom. Besides, the entire fortune is your right: my uncle gained it by his own efforts; he was free to leave it to whom he would: he left it to you. After all, justice permits you to keep it: you may, with a clear conscience, consider it absolutely your own.”
“With me,”