The Lindsays, Volume III by John K. Leys

Meantime, James Semple's conscience had been making him very miserable. It was not the fraud that troubled him. He had long since made up his mind that to prevent his uncle's unnatural intentions from being carried out was a very venial offence. Nor was it merely Alec's incarceration. That, he thought, would be amply compensated by the quarter of a million which would fall to his share as one of the residuary legatees. Alec's fortune, in fact, would be twice as large as his own; and it was only fair that he should take his share of the inconveniences which were inseparable from the securing of it.

But if his cousin should be convicted, and sentenced to a long term of penal servitude, Semple knew that he would feel very uncomfortable indeed. Yet, he argued, Alec would certainly have himself to thank if that was the result. If he had chosen to take Beattie's hint, and declare that his uncle, before he died, had privately told him that he had changed his mind, and wished to leave the bulk of his money to his two nephews, all would have been well, and Dr. Mackenzie might have raged as much as he pleased, without being able to do any harm. It was Alec's inability to explain the discrepancy between the will as it stood and his uncle's known intentions which formed the real strength of the prosecution.