trade lay temporarily invested, awaiting Alec's
decision, and his own share would probably be ample to tide the college
over any such shock to its income as might be feared from the
circumstances they had been contemplating, and until public confidence
might be laboriously regained. The plan was not one that would have
occurred to his own mind--first, because the suggestions of his mind
were always prudent; secondly, because such a fight was shocking to
that part of his nature which was usually uppermost. It would be far
more agreeable to him to turn away from the averted eyes of correct
taste than to stand brazenly till he was again tolerated. Still, this
very thing he disliked most might be the thing that he was meant to do,
and also there is nothing more contagious than the passion for war.
Alec's bellicose attitude aroused party spirit in him. He knew the power
of money; he knew the power of the prestige he had; he began to realise
that he could do this thing if he chose.

"You are a piece of consummate conceit," he mocked. "Do you imagine that
with a little money, and a very few personal graces, we two can
brow-beat the good judgment of the public?"

"The fun of the fight would be worth the money _almost_," observed Alec
parenthetically. Then he jeered: "Brace up, and put on more style; put
your groom in livery; get a page to open your front door; agitate till
you get some honorary degrees from American colleges! And as for me,
I'll send out my bills on parchment paper, with a monogram and a crest."

"Do you so despise your fellow men?" asked Robert sadly.

CHAPTER VII.

For a day or two previous to the conversation of the brothers about
Alec's decision, Alec had been debating in his own mind what, after all,
that decision had better be. Never had he come so near doubting the
principle to which he adhered as at this time. A few days went a long
way in Chellaston towards making a stranger, especially if he was a
young man with good introduction, feel at home there, and the open
friendliness of Chellaston society, acting like the sun in AEsop's fable,
had almost made this traveller take off his coat. Had Robert been a
person who had formerly agreed with him, it is probable that when the
subject was opened, he would have confessed the dubious condition of his
heart, and they would together have very carefully considered the
advisability of change of plan. Whether the upshot in that case would
have been di