He could not read in her eyes what she intended to do, so mutely bowed and took a ceremonious departure, paying a silent tribute to the widow's strength of mind.

"Poor thing; poor thing," thought the solicitor, "I believe she loves her cousin.

It is hard that she can only marry him at the cost of becoming a pauper.

A difficult position for her, indeed.

H'm! she'll hold on to the money, of course; no woman would be such a fool as to pay two millions sterling for a husband." In relation to nine women out of ten, this view would have been a reasonable one to take, but Agnes happened to be the tenth, who had the singular taste--madness some would have called it--to prefer love to hard cash.