'To Frank! to Mr. Gresham! to the squire!' exclaimed Mary, who felt, with an agony of doubt, that this sudden accession of immense wealth might separate her still further from her lover.
'No, Mary, not to the Greshams; but to yourself.'
'To me!' she cried, and putting both her hands to her forehead, she seemed to be holding her temples together. 'To me!'
'Yes, Mary; it is all your own now. To do as you like best with it all—all. May God, in his mercy enable you to bear the burden, and lighten for you the temptation!'
She had so far moved as to find the nearest chair, and there she was now seated, staring at her uncle with fixed eyes. 'Uncle,' she said, 'what does it mean?' Then he came, and sitting beside her, explained, as best he could, the story of her birth, and her kinship with the Scatcherds. 'And where is he, uncle?' she said. 'Why does he not come to me?'
'I wanted him to come, but he refused. They are both there now, the father and son; shall I fetch them?'
'Fetch them! whom? The squire? No, uncle; but may we go to them?'
'Surely, Mary.'
'But, uncle'
'Yes, dearest.'
'Is it true? are you sure? For his sake, you know; not for my own. The squire, you know—Oh, uncle! I cannot go.'
'They shall come to you.'
'No—no. I have gone to him such hundreds of times; I will never allow that he shall be sent to me. But, uncle, is it true?'
The doctor, as he went down stairs, muttered something about Sir Abraham Haphazard, and Sir Rickety Giggs; but these great names were much thrown away upon poor Mary. The doctor entered the room first, and the heiress followed him with downcast eyes and timid steps. She was at first afraid to advance, but when she did look up, and saw Frank standing alone by the window, her lover restored her courage, and rushing up to him, she threw herself into his arms. 'Oh Frank; my own Frank! my own Frank! we shall never be separated now.'
CHAPTER XLVII.
HOW THE BRIDE WAS RECEIVED, AND WHO WERE ASKED TO THE WEDDING.
And thus after all did Frank perform his great duty; he did marry money; or rather, as the wedding has not yet taken place, and is, indeed, as yet hardly talked of, we should more properly
