"
"Having no care for the opinion of the world, I shall be satisfied
if I convince you. The world needs never hear of the thing. Would
you, Mr. Graeme, have had me not marry her, because the world,
including not a few honest men like yourself, would say my object
was the property?"
"Don't put the question to me; I am not the proper person to answer
it. There is not a man in a hundred millions who with the chance
would not have done the same, or whom all the rest would not blame
for doing it. It would have been better for you, however, that there
had been no will."
"How?"
"It makes it look the more like a scheme:--the will might have been
disputed."
"Why do you say--might have been?"
"Because it is not worth disputing now. If the marriage stands, it
annuls the will."
"I did not know; and I suppose she did not know either. Or perhaps
she wanted to make the thing sure: if the marriage was not enough,
the will would be--she may have thought. But I knew nothing of it."
"You did not?"
"Of course I did not."
Mr. Graeme held his peace. For the first time he doubted Donal's
word.
"But I wanted to have a little talk with you," resumed Donal. "I
want to know whether you think your duty all to the owner of the
land, or in any measure to the tenants also."
"That is easy to answer: one employed by the landlord can owe the
tenant nothing.
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