Said Davie,
"Must a woman, Mr. Grant, marry a man she does not love?"
"No, certainly, Davie."
"Mr. Grant," said Arctura, in dread of what Davie might say next,
"what do you take to be the duty of one inheriting a property? Ought
a woman to get rid of it, or attend to it herself?"
Donal thought a little.
"We must first settle the main duty of property," he said; "and that
I am hardly prepared to do."
"Is there not a duty owing to your family?"
"There are a thousand duties owing to your family."
"I don't mean those you are living with merely, but those also who
transmitted the property to you. This property belongs to my family
rather than to me, and if I had had a brother it would have gone to
him: should I not do better for the family by giving it up to the
next heir? I am not disinterested in starting the question;
possession and power are of no great importance in my eyes; they are
hindrances to me."
"It seems to me," said Donal, "that the fact that you would not have
succeeded had there been a son, points to the fact of a disposer of
events: you were sent into the world to take the property. If so,
God expects you to perform the duties of it; they are not to be got
rid of by throwing the thing aside, or giving them to another to do
for you. If your family and not God were the real giver of the
property, the question you put might arise; but I should hardly take
interest enough in it to be capable of discussing it.
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