nowledge of what the world will say that breaks
us down;--not regret for those enjoyments which wealth can give, and
which had been long anticipated.

At two o'clock on this day he got a telegram. "I will be at the
parsonage this evening, and will come down at once." Ralph the heir,
on his return home late at night, had heard the news, and early on
the following morning had communicated with his brother and with
his namesake. In the afternoon, after his return from Basingstoke,
Gregory again came down to the house, desiring to know whether Ralph
would prefer that the meeting should be at the Priory or at the
parsonage, and on this occasion his cousin bore with him. "Why should
not your brother come to his own house?" asked Ralph.

"I suppose he feels that he should not claim it as his own."

"That is nonsense. It is his own, and he knows it. Does he think that
I am likely to raise any question against his right?"

"I do not suppose that my brother has ever looked at the matter in
that light," said the parson. "He is the last man in the world to do
so. For the present, at any rate, you are living here and he is not.
In such an emergency, perhaps, he feels that it would be better that
he should come to his brother than intrude here."

"It would be no intrusion. I should wish him to feel that I am
prepared to yield to him instantly. Of course the house cannot be
very pleasant for him as yet. He must suffer something of the misery
of the occasion before he can enjoy his inheritance. But it will only
be for a day or so."

"Dear Ralph," said the parson, "I think you somewhat wrong my
brother."

"I endeavour not to do so. I think no ill of him, because I presume
he should look for enjoyment from what is certainly his own. He
and my father were not friends, and this, which has been to me so
terrible a calamity in every way, cannot affect him with serious
sorrow. I shall meet him as a friend; but I would sooner meet him
here than at the parsonage."

It was at last settled that the two brothers should come down to
the great house,--both Ralph the heir, and Gregory the parson; and
that the three young men should remain there, at any rate, till the
funeral was over. And when this was arranged, the two who had really
been fast friends for so many years, were able to talk to each other
in true friendship. The solitude which he had endured had been almost
too much for the one who had been made so desolate; but at last,
warm