o be the tacit condition on which you will refrain from turning me
out. I ought indeed to have abstained from referring, however vaguely,
to past events, for the plain reason that anything I could say would
already have come too late to prevent the grievous deed you have now
pledged yourself to commit."

"Rupert--!" exclaimed Sir Adrian stepping back a pace, too amazed, at
the instant, for indignation.

"Now, in your turn, hear me, Adrian," continued Mr. Landale with his
blackest look. "I have listened to your summing up of our respective
cases with perfect patience, notwithstanding a certain assumption of
superiority which--allow me to insist on this--is somewhat ridiculous
from you to me. You complain of my misunderstanding you. Briefly, this
is absurd. As a matter of fact I understand you better than you do
yourself. On the other hand it is you that do not understand me. I
have no wish to paraphrase your little homily of two minutes ago, but
the heads of my refutation are inevitably suggested by the points of
your indictment. To use your own manner of speech, my dear Adrian, I
have no wish to assume injured disinterestedness, when speaking of my
doings with regard to you and your belongings and especially to this
old place of yours, of our family. You have only to look and see for
yourself...."

Mr. Landale made a wide comprehensive gesture which seemed to embrace
the whole of the noble estate, the admirably kept mansion with walls
now flushed in the light of the sinking sun, the orderly maintenance
of the vast grounds, the prosperousness of its dependencies--all in
fact that the brothers could see with the eyes of the body from where
they stood, and all that they could see with the eyes of the mind
alone: "Go and verify whether I fulfilled my duty with respect to the
trust which was yours, but which you have allowed to devolve upon my
shoulders, and ask yourself whether you would have fulfilled it
better--if as well. I claim no more than this recognition; for, as you
pointed out, the position carried its advantages, if it entailed
arduous responsibility too. It was my hope that heirs of my body would
live to perpetuate this pride--this work of mine. It was not to be.
Now that you step in again and that possibly your flesh will reap the
benefits I have laboured to produce, ask yourself, Adrian, whether
you, who shirked your own natural duties, would have buckled to the
task, under _my_ circumstances--distrusted by