"I believe not. If the title is worth nothing without the money,
the money must be more than the title!--If I were Lazarus," Donal
went on, "and the inheritor of a title, I would use it, if only for
a lesson to Dives up stairs. I scorn to think that honour should
wait on the heels of wealth. You may think it is because I am and
always shall be a poor man; but if I know myself it is not
therefore. At the same time a title is but a trifle; and if you had
given any other reason for not using it than homage to Mammon, I
should have said nothing."
"For my part," said Miss Graeme, "I have no quarrel with riches
except that they do not come my way. I should know how to use and
not abuse them!"
Donal made no other reply than to turn a look of divinely stupid
surprise and pity upon the young woman. It was of no use to say
anything! Were argument absolutely triumphant, Mammon would sit
just where he was before! He had marked the great indifference of
the Lord to the convincing of the understanding: when men knew the
thing itself, then and not before would they understand its
relations and reasons!
If truth belongs to the human soul, then the soul is able to see it
and know it: if it do the truth, it takes therein the first
possible, and almost the last necessary step towards understanding
it.
Miss Graeme caught his look, and must have perceived its expression,
for her face flushed a more than rosy red, and the conversation grew
crumbly.
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