A slight smile passed across Mr. Withers’ face, and his wife saw that that was not at all the way in which he looked at it.

“That is just like you men, James,” she said a little pettishly.  “You ask us what we think about things when you have perfectly made up your minds what you mean to do, whether we agree with you or not.”

“I don’t think that’s often the case with us.  Still I did want to see whether the matter would have struck you at once in the same light in which I see it, and I perceive that it has not.”

“Well, James, let me hear your view of the matter.  I dare say I shall agree with you when you tell me what it is.”

“Well, then, Amy,” Mr. Withers said seriously, “it appears to me that we cannot accept this offer for Mabel.”

Mrs. Withers looked a little blank.  The living was not a rich one, and assured as they had been by Mr. Penfold that he intended to provide for Mabel, they had not endeavored to lay by anything for her, and had freely dispensed their surplus income among the sick and needy of the parish.  The disappearance of the will had disappointed their hopes, and raised many anxious thoughts in Mrs. Withers’ mind respecting Mabel’s future, and the offer contained in the letter had therefore filled her with pleasure.  But she greatly valued her husband’s judgment, and therefore only replied: 

“Why, dear?”

“Well, you see, wife, we are both thoroughly agreed that these ladies are depriving Mabel of the fortune Herbert Penfold left her.  They are concealing or have destroyed his will, and are at present in what we may call fraudulent possession of his property.  Now, I do not think that under these circumstances we can accept a favor at their hands.  To do so would be practically to acquiesce in what we consider the robbery of our child, and the acceptance would of course involve a renewal of friendly relations with them; a thing which, believing as we do that they are acting wickedly would be distasteful in the extreme, not to say impossible.”

“Of course you are right, dear,” Mrs. Withers said, rising from her seat and going over and kissing her husband tenderly.  “I had not thought of it in that light at all.  In fact I had hardly thought about it at all, except that it would be nice to see Mabel provided for.”

“It would be nice, my dear.  But we surely need not be anxious about her.  We may hope that she will make a happy marriage.  We may hope too that we may be spared long enough to make some provision for her, for, of course, we must now curtail our expenses and lay by as much as we can for her.  Lastly, dear, we need not be anxious; because we trust that God will provide for her should we not be enabled to do so.  But even were I sure that we should both be taken together, I would rather leave her in His hands than accept money wrongfully obtained and condone an abominable action.  There is, too, another point from which the matter should be looked at.  You see this curious condition that they propose, that the annuity shall be forfeited unless she marry with their sanction.  Why should they propose such a condition?”