I feel so very sorry for him."
"Only, my dear"--Lord Cairnforth sometimes called her "my dear," and
spoke to her with a tender, superior wisdom--"one's link to one's
friends ought to be a little stronger than being sorry for them; one
ought to respect them. One must respect them before one can trust them
very much--with one's property, for instance."
"Do you mean," said straightforward Helen, "that you have any thoughts
of making Captain Bruce your heir?"
"No, certainly not; but I have grave doubts whether I ought not to
remember him in my will, only I wished to see his health re-established
first, since, had he continued as delicate as when he came, he might not
even have outlived me."
"How calmly you talk of all this," said Helen, with a little shiver.
She, full of life and health, could hardly realize the feeling of one
who stood always on the brink of another world, and looking to that
world only for real health--real life.
"I think of it calmly, and therefore speak calmly. But, dear Helen, I
will not grieve you to-day. There is plenty of time, and all is safe,
whatever happens. I can trust my successor to do rightly.
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