e following
morning. Ralph met him before the Squire came down, and the news was
soon told. "It is all settled," said Ralph, with a sigh.

"Well?"

"Your brother has agreed to sell."

"No!"

"I have almost more pain than pleasure in it myself, because I know
it will make you unhappy."

"He was so confident when he wrote to me!"

"Yes;--but he explained all that. He had hoped then that he could
have saved it. But the manner of saving it would have been worse than
the loss. He will tell you everything, no doubt. No man could have
behaved better." As it happened, there was still some little space
of time before the Squire joined them,--a period perhaps of five
minutes. But the parson spoke hardly a word. The news which he now
heard confounded him. He had been quite sure that his brother had
been in earnest, and that his uncle would fail. And then, though
he loved the one Ralph nearly as well as he did the other,--though
he must have known that Ralph the base-born was in all respects a
better man than his own brother, more of a man than the legitimate
heir,--still to his feelings that legitimacy was everything. He too
was a Newton of Newton; but it may be truly said of him that there
was nothing selfish in his feelings. To be the younger brother of
Newton of Newton, and parson of the parish which bore the same name
as themselves, was sufficient for his ambition. But things would be
terribly astray now that the right heir was extruded. Ralph, this
Ralph whom he loved so well, could not be the right Newton to own the
property. The world would not so regard him. The tenants would not so
think of him. The county would not so repute him. To the thinking of
parson Gregory, a great misfortune had been consummated. As soon as
he had realised it, he was silent and could speak no more.

Nor did Ralph say a word. Not to triumph in what had been done on his
behalf,--or at least not to seem to triumph,--that was the lesson
which he had taught himself. He fully sympathised with Gregory; and
therefore he stood silent and sad by his side. That there must have
been some triumph in his heart it is impossible not to imagine. It
could not be but that he should be alive to the glory of being the
undoubted heir to Newton Priory. And he understood well that his
birth would interfere but little now with his position. Should he
choose to marry, as he would choose, it would of course be necessary
that he should explain his birth; but it wa