Chapter 10 - Page 2

sacrifice such a lot of good
money?"

"That's for herself to judge. Besides, it's not her own money; she
doesn't in the least consider it so."

"And Gravener does, if not HIS own; and that's the whole
difficulty?"

"The difficulty that brought her back, yes: she had absolutely to
see her poor aunt's solicitor. It's clear that by Lady Coxon's
will she may have the money, but it's still clearer to her
conscience that the original condition, definite, intensely implied
on her uncle's part, is attached to the use of it. She can only
take one view of it. It's for the Endowment or it's for nothing."

"The Endowment," I permitted myself to observe, "is a conception
superficially sublime, but fundamentally ridiculous."

"Are you repeating Mr. Gravener's words?" Adelaide asked.

"Possibly, though I've not seen him for months. It's simply the
way it strikes me too. It's an old wife's tale. Gravener made
some reference to the legal aspect, but such an absurdly loose
arrangement has NO legal aspect."

"Ruth doesn't insist on that," said Mrs. Mulville; "and it's, for
her, exactly this technical weakness that constitutes the force of
the moral obligation."

"Are you repeating her words?" I enquired. I forget what else
Adelaide said, but she said she was magnificent. I thought of
George Gravener confronted with such magnificence as that, and I
asked what could have made two such persons ever suppose they
understood each other. Mrs. Mulville assured me the girl loved him
as such a woman could love and that she suffered as such a woman
could suffer. Nevertheless she wanted to see ME. At this I sprang
up with a groan. "Oh I'm so sorry!--when?" Small though her sense
of humour, I think Adelaide laughed at my sequence. We discussed
the day, the nearest it would be convenient I should come out; but
before she went I asked my visitor how long she had been acquainted
with these prodigies.

"For several weeks, but I was pledged to secrecy."

"And that's why you didn't write?"

"I couldn't very well tell you she was with me without telling you
that no time had even yet been fixed for her marriage. And I
couldn't very well tell you as much as that without telling you
what I knew of the reason of it. It was not till a day or two
ago," Mrs. Mulville went on, "that she asked me to ask you if you
wouldn't come and see her. Then at last she spoke of your knowing
about the idea of the Endowment."

I turned this over. "Why on earth does she want to see me?"

"To talk with you, naturally, about Mr. Saltram."

"As a subject for the prize?" This was hugely obvious, and I
presently returned: "I think I'll sail to-morrow for Australia."

"Well