ateful for all your candor!"

"Come, come, Curtis; be angry with me, if you will; but for Heaven's
sake do not lend yourself to these base plots and schemes. If there be a
conspiracy to rob poor Walter's widow and her child, let not one of his
oldest, best friends have any share in it."

"I 'll maintain my rights, sir, be assured of that!" said Curtis, with
a degree of resolution strangely different from his former manner. "Mr.
MacNaghten's impression of my competence to conduct my own affairs may
possibly be disparaging, but, happily, there is another tribunal which
shall decide on that question. Raper, I 'm going into town,--will you
accompany me? Mr. MacNaghten, I wish you a good morning." And with these
words he took Raper's arm, and retired, leaving Dan still standing,
mute, overwhelmed, and thunderstruck.

CHAPTER XX. PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY

What I have heretofore mentioned of the events which followed
immediately on my father's death were all related circumstantially to me
by MacNaghtan himself, who used to dwell upon them with a most painfully
accurate memory. There was not an incident, however slight, there was
not a scene of passing interest, that did not leave its deep impression
on him; and, amid all the trials of his own precarious life, these were
the events which he recurred to most frequently.

Poor fellow, how severely did he reproach himself for calamities that no
effort of his could avert! How often has he deplored mistakes and errors
which, though they perhaps hastened, by no means caused, the ruin that
imperilled us. The simple fact was, that in his dread of litigation,
from which almost all his own misfortunes had sprung, he endeavored to
conduct affairs which required the most acute and subtle intelligence
to guide. He believed that good sense and good intentions would be amply
sufficient to divest my father's circumstances of all embarrassment;
and when, at last, he saw two claimants in the field for the
property--immense, almost fabulous, demands from Fagan--and heard,
besides, that no provision was made for my mother, whose marriage
was utterly denied and disbelieved,--then he appears to have lost all
self-control altogether, and in his despair to have grasped at any
expedient that presented itself; one day addressing a confidential
letter to Sir Carew O'Moore, whom he regarded as the rightful heir
to the property; the next, adventuring to open relations with Curtis,
through the me