worldly wise, nor endowed with
much knowledge of life, he had, as Augustus knew, a rough-and-ready
judgment which, allied to a spirit of high honor, rarely failed in
detecting that course which in the long run proved best. Jack, too, was
no casuist, no hair-splitter; he took wide, commonplace views, and in
this way was sure to do what nine out of ten ordinary men would approve
of, and this was the sort of counsel that Bramleigh now desired to set
side by side with his own deeply considered opinion.

Jack listened attentively to his brother's explanation, not once
interrupting him by a word or a question till he had finished, and then,
laying his hand gently on the other's, said, "You know well, Gusty, that
you could n't do this."

"I thought you would say so, Jack."

"You'd be a fool to part with what you owned, or a knave to sell what
did not belong to you."

"My own judgment precisely."

"I'd not bother myself then with Sedley's pros and cons, nor entertain
the question about saving what one could out of the wreck. If you have
n't a right to a plank in the ship, you have no right to her because she
is on the rocks. Say 'No,' Gusty: say 'No' at once."

"It would be at best a compromise on the life of one man, for
Pracontal's son, if he should leave one, could revive the claim."

"Don't let us go so far, Gusty. Let us deal with the case as it stands
before us. Say 'No,' and have done with the matter at once."

Augustus leaned his head between his hands, and fell into a deep vein of
thought.

"You 've had your trial of humble fortune now, Gusty," continued Jack,
"and I don't see that it has soured you; I see no signs of fretting or
irritability about you, old fellow; I'll even say that I never remember
you jollier or heartier. Isn't it true, this sort of life has no terror
for you?"

"Think of Nelly, Jack."

"Nelly is better able to brave hard fortune than either of us. She
never was spoiled when we were rich, and she had no pretensions to lay
down when we became poor."

"And yourself, my poor fellow? I 've had many a plan of what I meant by
you."

"Never waste a thought about me. I 'll buy a trabaccolo. They 're
the handiest coasting craft that ever sailed; and I 'll see if the
fruit-trade in the Levant won't feed me, and we 'll live here, Gusty,
all together. Come now, tell me frankly, would you exchange that for
Castello, if you had to go back there and live alone--eh?"

"I 'll not say I would; but