wton and his son Ralph had lived together at the Priory for
the last six-and-twenty years, and the young man had grown up as a
Newton within the knowledge of all the gentry around them. The story
of his birth was public, and it was of course understood that he was
not the heir. His father had been too wise on the son's behalf to
encourage any concealment. The son was very popular, and deserved to
be so; but it was known to all the young men round, and also to all
the maidens, that he would not be Newton of Newton. There had been
no ill-contrived secret, sufficient to make a difficulty, but not
sufficient to save the lad from the pains of his position. Everybody
knew it; and yet it can hardly be said that he was treated otherwise
than he would have been treated had he been the heir. In the
hunting-field there was no more popular man. A point had been
stretched in his favour, and he was a magistrate. Mothers were kind
to him, for it was known that his father loved him well, and that
his father had been a prudent man. In all respects he was treated
as though he were the heir. He managed the shooting, and was the
trusted friend of all the tenants. Doubtless his father was the more
indulgent to him because of the injury that had been done to him.
After all, his life promised well as to material prosperity; for,
though the Squire, in writing to Sir Thomas, had spoken of selling
half the property with the view of keeping the other half for his
son, he was already possessed of means that would enable him to
make the proposed arrangement without such sacrifice as that. For
twenty-four years he had felt that he was bound to make a fortune for
his son out of his own income. And he had made a fortune, and mothers
knew it, and everybody in the county was very civil to Ralph,--to
that Ralph who was not the heir.

But the Squire had never yet quite abandoned the hope that Ralph who
was not the heir might yet possess the place; and when he heard of
his nephew's doings, heard falsehood as well as truth, from day to
day he built up new hopes. He had not expected any such overture as
that which had come from Sir Thomas; but if, as he did expect, Ralph
the heir should go to the Jews, why should not the Squire purchase
the Jews' interest in his own estate? Or, if Ralph the heir should,
more wisely, deal with some great money-lending office, why should
not he redeem the property through the same? Ralph the heir would
surely throw what inter