But, if' it seems so to you, I can only submit; and I will try to forget that you ever said to me, 'I shall trust you till I die!' O Mercy, Mercy, ask yourself if you are just! "STEPHEN." Mercy grasped eagerly at the intimation in this letter that Stephen might possibly give the money up because she desired it.
"Oh, if he will only not keep it, I don't care on what grounds he gives it up!" she exclaimed.

"I can bear his thinking it was his, if only the money goes where it belongs.

He will see afterwards that I was right." And she sat down instantly, and wrote Stephen a long letter, imploring him to do as he had suggested.
"Darling," she said, "this last letter of yours has given me great comfort." As Stephen read this sentence, he uttered an ejaculation of surprise.

What possible comfort there could have been in the words he remembered to have written he failed to see; but it was soon made clear to him.
"You say," she continued, "that you might possibly give the money up for sake of my peace of mind, if it were not for the fear that your mother might suffer.

O Stephen, then give it up! give it up! Trust to the future's being at least as kind as the past.