God bless you, Mary!" and away the doctor went on his cold bleak ride to Boxall Hill.
"Who will be his heir ?" As the doctor rode along, he could not quite rid his mind of this question.

The poor man now about to die had wealth enough to make many heirs.

What if his heart should have softened towards his sister's child! What if Mary should be found in a few days to be possessed of such wealth that the Greshams should be again be happy to welcome her at Greshamsbury! The doctor was not a lover of money--and he did his best to get rid of such pernicious thoughts.

But his longings, perhaps, were not so much that Mary should be rich, as that she should have the power of heaping coals of fire upon the heads of those people who had so injured her..