I shall need to do; and if I should
not, I 'll ask you to help me."

"Good-bye, then. Good-bye, Miss Ellen," cried he, aloud. "It's not _my_
fault that I 'm not a favorite with you;" and thus saying, he snatched
his hat, and was down the stairs and out of the house before Bramleigh
could utter a word.

"What a kind-hearted fellow it is!" said he, as he joined his sister.
"I must tell you what he called me aside for."

She listened quietly while he recounted what had just occurred, and
then said,--

"The Gospel tells us it's hard for rich men to get to heaven; but it's
scarcely less hard for them to see what there is good here below! So
long as we were well off I could see nothing to like in that man."

"That was my own thought a few minutes back; so you see, Nelly, we are
not only travelling the same road, but gaining the same experiences."

"Sedley says in this letter here," said Augustus, the next morning, as
he entered the breakfast-room, "that Pracontal's lawyer is perfectly
satisfied with the honesty of our intentions, and we shall go to trial
in the November term on the ejectment case. It will raise the whole
question, and the law shall decide between us."

"And what becomes of that--that arrangement," said she, hesitatingly,
"by which M. Pracontal consented to withdraw his claim?"

"It was made against my consent, and I have refused to adhere to it. I
have told Sedley so, and told him that I shall hold him responsible to
the amount disbursed."

"But, dear Gusty, remember how much to your advantage that settlement
would have been."

"I only remember the shame I felt on hearing of it, and my sorrow that
Sedley should have thought my acceptance of it possible."

"But how has M. Pracontal taken this money and gone on with his
suit?--surely both courses are not open to him?"

"I can tell you nothing about M. Pracontal. I only know that he, as well
as myself, would seem to be strangely served by our respective lawyers,
who assume to deal for us, whether we will or not."

"I still cling to the wish that the matter had been left to Mr. Sedley."

"You must not say so, Nelly; you must never tell me you would wish I had
been a party to my own dishonor. Either Pracontal or I own this estate;
no compromise could be possible without a stain to each of us, and
for my own part, I will neither resist a just claim nor give way to an
unfair demand. Let us talk of this no more."

CHAPTER XXXVIII. WITH LORD CU