of money, and his misanthropic disposition, before their object was
accomplished, or he would deign to pay the least attention to their
proposition. Defeated a thousand times, they returned with unwearied
perseverance to the charge, often laughing in secret over their defeat,
or exulting in the least advantage they fancied that they had gained.

Time, which levels mountains and overthrows man's proudest structures,
at length sapped the resolutions of the old man, although they appeared
at first to have been written upon his heart in adamant. The truth is,
that he was a man of few words, and, next to talking himself, he hated
to be talked to, and still more to be talked at; and Mrs. Hurdlestone
and brother Alfred had never ceased to talk to him, and at him, for the
last three months, and always upon the one eternal theme--Algernon's
removal to college, and his travels abroad.

His patience was exhausted; human endurance could stand it no longer;
and he felt that if Ear-gate was to be stormed much longer on the same
subject, he should go mad, and be driven from the field. A magic word
had been whispered in his ear by his eldest son. "Father, let him go:
think how happy and quiet we shall be at home, when this hopeful uncle
and nephew are away."

This hint was enough: the old man capitulated without another opposing
argument, and consented to what he termed the ruin of his youngest son.
How Mrs. Hurdlestone and Uncle Alfred triumphed in the victory they
thought they had obtained!--yet it was all owing to that one sentence
from the crafty lips of Mark, muttered into the ear of the old man.
Algernon was to go to Oxford, and after the completion of his studies
there, make the tour of the Continent, accompanied by his uncle. This
was the extent of Mrs. Hurdlestone's ambition; and many were her private
instructions to her gay, thoughtless son, to be merry and wise, and not
draw too frequently upon his father's purse. The poor lady might as well
have lectured to the winds, as preached on prudence to Uncle Alfred's
accomplished pupil; for both had determined to fling off all restraint
the moment they left the shade of the Oak Hall groves behind them.

Algernon was so elated with his unexpected emancipation from the
tyrannical control of his father and brother, that he left the stately
old house with as little regret as a prisoner would do who had been
confined for years in some magnificent castle, which had been converted
int