l take more than ten minutes--what I have to say," returned
Bolton, coolly. "I am rather tired of standing, so you will excuse me
if I sit down."

As he spoke he dropped into a comfortable chair three feet from his
host.

"Confound his impudence!" thought Ray, much annoyed.

"I think we had better go indoors," he said.

He did not care to be seen in an apparently friendly conversation with
a man like Bolton.

"Very well. I think myself it may be better."

He followed Ray into a room which the latter used as a library and
office, and took care to select a comfortable seat.

"Really, Stephen Ray," he remarked, glancing around him at the
well-filled bookcases, the handsome pictures, and the luxurious
furniture, "you are very nicely fixed here."

"I suppose you didn't come to tell me that," responded Stephen Ray
with a sneer.

"Well, not altogether, but it is as well to refer to it. I have known
you a good many years. I remember when you first came here to visit
your uncle in the character of a poor relation. I don't believe you
had a hundred dollars to your name."

Such references grated upon the purse-proud aristocrat, who tried to
persuade himself that he had always been as prosperous as at present.

"There is no occasion for your reminiscences," he said stiffly.

"No, I suppose you don't care to think of those days now. Your cousin,
Dudley, a fine young man, was a year or two older. Who would have
thought that the time would come when you--the poor cousin--would be
reigning in his place?"

"If that is all you have to say, our interview may as well close."

"It isn't all I have to say. I must indulge in a few more
reminiscences, though you dislike them. A few years passed. Dudley
married against his father's wishes; that is, his father did not
approve of his selection, and he fell out of favor. As he lost favor
you gained it."

"That is true enough, but it is an old story. Why recall it?"

"Does it seem just that an own son should be disinherited and a
stranger--"

"A near relative," corrected Stephen Ray.

"Well, a near relative, but less near than an only son. Does it seem
right that Dudley should have been disinherited and you put in his
place?"

"Certainly. My cousin disobeyed his father, while I was always dutiful
and obedient."

"So he was left in poverty."

"I don't see how that concerns you, Benjamin Bolton. My uncle had the
right to dispose of his property as he pleased. It was not f