Why, bless
my soul! I remember the circumstance perfectly well, my dear young lady.
There can't be a doubt about the letter, but of course the bequest is no
bequest at all, and Colonel Newcome has behaved so ill to your brother
that I suppose Sir Barnes will not go out of his way to benefit the
Colonel."
"What would you do, Mr. Luce?" asks the young lady.
"H'm! And pray why should I tell you what I should do under the
circumstances?" replied the little lawyer. "Upon my word, Miss Newcome, I
think I should leave matters as they stand. Sir Barnes and I, you are
aware, are not the very best of friends--as your father's, your
grandmother's old friend and adviser, your own too, my dear young lady, I
and Sir Barnes Newcome remain on civil terms. But neither is over much
pleased with the other, to say the truth; and, at any rate, I cannot be
accused--nor can any one else that I know of--of being a very warm
partisan of your brother's. But candidly, were his case mine--had I a
relation who had called me unpleasant names, and threatened me I don't
know with what, with sword and pistol--who had put me to five or six
thousand pounds' expense in contesting an election which I had lost,--I
should give him, I think, no more than the law obliged me to give him;
and that, my dear Miss Newcome, is not one farthing.
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