"
"What can I do with Loughlinter? I will give it back to them." Then
Mr. Forster explained that the legacy referred not only to the house
and immediate grounds,--but to the whole estate known as the domain
of Loughlinter. There could be no reason why she should give it up,
but very many why she should not do so. Circumstanced as Mr. Kennedy
had been, with no one nearer to him than a first cousin, with a
property purchased with money saved by his father,--a property to
which no cousin could by inheritance have any claim,--he could not
have done better with it than to leave it to his widow in fault of
any issue of his own. Then the lawyer explained that were she to give
it up, the world would of course say that she had done so from a
feeling of her own unworthiness. "Why should I feel myself to be
unworthy?" she asked. The lawyer smiled, and told her that of course
she would retain Loughlinter.
Then, at her request, he was taken to the Earl's room and there
repeated the good news. Lady Laura preferred not to hear her father's
first exultations.
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