My Lady Pride

"It was a remarkably generous offer; extraordinarily so!" he said, wagging his head. "I was never more surprised in my life never! Such a new experience for me, I assure you. I have often known of offers of compromise before cases have been finally tried, but never after. Why, it is a clear gift of five thousand pounds! I congratulate you and your mamma, Miss Carlisle," and he made a little bow, which broke off short as Floris's voice rose clear and full, though low, with the single word. "Stop!" Mr. Morrel looked up at her with a start. He had expected, if not a gush of gratitude, at any rate an expreseion of thankfulness and relief...but the "Stop!" sounded anything but that. "You say that Lord Norman has offered, of his own free will, to pay these costs; to give us, yon said, this money?" "Yes, oh, yes; there is no mistake!" Mr. Morrel replied, "and we should have accepted, but thought it better, as a matter of form, to lay the offer before you. We thought that, perhaps, you would like to make something more than a formal acknowledgment of his lordship's kindness." " Yes, yes," Mrs. Carlisle murmured, tremulously. "Hush, hush!" Floris breathed, bending over her, then she raised her head and fixed her eyes upon the man of law. "You did right, sir," she said and at the solemnity in her voice he started and stared at her. "We should like to make something more than a formal acknowledgment, through a lawyer, of Lord Norman's kindness!" With a swift, yet graceful, and all too haughty, gesture? she glided to a side-table, and bending, not sitting hastily. Then she glided back, and with the air of an indignant empress, she extended her white hand with the paper in it. "There's an acknowledgment of his lordship's offer. Be good enough to read it, Mr. Morrel." The lawyer held the paper near the lamp, and, in his amazement, read the written words aloud. "A Carlisle demands justice, not charity, and having received the former, has no desire to become the recipient of the latter, even though it should be at the hands of the Earl of Nerman."