CHAPTER XXXIII 487
" Perhaps , if you explained yourself a little more fully , I should comprehend better ."
" Explain ! What is there to explain ? You cannot fail to see that twenty thousand pounds , the sum in question , divided equally between the nephew and three nieces of our uncle , will give five thousand to each ? What I want is , that you should write to your sisters and tell them of the fortune that has accrued to them ."
" To you , you mean ."
" I have intimated my view of the case : I am incapable of taking any other . I am not brutally selfish , blindly unjust , or fiendishly ungrateful . Besides , I am resolved I will have a home and connections . I like Moor House , and I will live at Moor House ; I like Diana and Mary , and I will attach myself for life to Diana and Mary . It would please and benefit me to have five thousand pounds ; it would torment and oppress me to have twenty thousand ; which , moreover , could never be mine in justice , though it might in law . I abandon to you , then , what is absolutely superfluous to me . Let there be no opposition , and no discussion about it ; let us agree amongst each other , and decide the point at once ."
" This is acting on first impulses ; you must take days to consider such a matter , ere your word can be regarded as valid ."
" Oh ! if all you doubt is my sincerity , I am easy : you see the justice of the case ?"
" I DO see a certain justice ; but it is contrary to all custom . Besides , the entire fortune is your right : my uncle gained it by his own efforts ; he was free to leave it to whom he would : he left it to you . After all , justice permits you to keep it : you may , with a clear conscience , consider it absolutely your own ."
" With me ," said I , " it is fully as much a matter of feeling as of conscience : I must indulge my feelings ; I so seldom have had an opportunity of doing so .