“I can hardly admit that, my lord,” replied Markham; “for Mr. Denver has told me that when this last will was made, Mr. Martindale expressed himself desirous of leaving to Mr. Price something more than would devolve to him as residuary-legatee; and I can hardly suppose that Mr. Martindale would have left him any thing at all had he detected him in such a transaction. I thank you, my lord, for the construction which you are liberally disposed to put on the will; but I cannot indeed, and I will not avail myself of what I consider as an absolute error.”
Lord Trimmerstone listened seriously, looked thoughtfully, and at last, after a considerable pause, said, “Well, Mr. Markham, if it must be so it must; but I sincerely tell you, I am sorry that you are so scrupulous. You really put me into an unpleasant situation; for if it be not honorable for you to accept the property, I cannot think that I should be acting honorably in availing myself of your generosity.”
“My lord,” continued Markham, “you must not call it generosity. I am acting upon what I conceive to be a principle of simple justice. I might of course take advantage lawfully of the error; but law and justice so far differ, inasmuch as justice must depend upon circumstances; and the letter of a written law cannot change according to varying events and unforeseen accidents.”
This was all very true and very proper. Lord Trimmerstone could not but admire and commend Markham’s spirit. On the other hand, Markham was astonished at the apparent change in Lord Trimmerstone’s manners, which were not as they had been, those of a proud and vulgar man of high rank, but civil, gentle, and courteous. The fanatic principle had really done his lordship some good. Nothing short of that could have checked him in his gambling course, or brought him from the society of his reckless and heedless companions. It is true that there was not a very complete, nor, in all respects, an entirely advantageous change in his manners. He had become somewhat morose and cynical; and from being delighted with excesses, he had become snarlingly disgusted at temperate pleasures; and he looked with a kind of moral contempt upon those characters which had stood, in a moral point of view, much higher than his own. But at all events, to get rid of ruinous and profligate habits is desirable, and worth some sacrifices.