He remarked that property was property, by which he meant
to intimate that the real owner of substantial wealth could not be
allowed to disembarrass himself of his responsibilities or strip
himself of his privileges by a few generous but idle words. The late
Duke's will was a very serious thing, and it seemed to the heir that
this abandoning of a legacy bequeathed by the Duke was a making
light of the Duke's last act and deed. To refuse money in such
circumstances was almost like refusing rain from heaven, or warmth
from the sun. It could not be done. The things were her property, and
though she might, of course, chuck them into the street, they would
no less be hers. "But I won't have them, Duke," said Madame Goesler;
and the late Chancellor of the Exchequer found that no proposition
made by him in the House had ever been received with a firmer
opposition. His wife told him that nothing he could say would be of
any avail, and rather ridiculed his idea of the solemnity of wills.
"You can't make a person take a thing because you write it down on a
thick bit of paper, any more than if you gave it her across a table.
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