g."

"Upon my word I wish you would hold your tongues about it; at any rate
till my back is turned," said the old lady.

Then Augustus finished the conversation. "I am determined to treat it
all as though it were a joke, and, as a joke, one to be spoken of
lightly. It was a strong measure, certainly, this attempt to rob me of
twenty or thirty thousand pounds a year. But it was done in favor of my
brother, and therefore let it pass. I am at a loss to conceive what my
father has done with his money. He hasn't given Mountjoy, at any rate,
more than a half of his income for the last five or six years, and his
own personal expenses are very small. Yet he tells me that he has the
greatest difficulty in raising a thousand pounds, and positively refuses
in his present difficulties to add above five hundred a year to my
former allowance. No father who had thoroughly done his duty by his son,
could speak in a more fixed and austere manner. And yet he knows that
every shilling will be mine as soon as he goes." The servant who was
waiting upon them had been in and out of the room while this was said,
and must have heard much of it. But to that Augustus seemed to be quite
indifferent. And, indeed, the whole family story was known to every
servant in the house. It is true that gentlemen and ladies who have
servants do not usually wish to talk about their private matters before
all the household, even though the private matters may be known; but
this household was unlike all others in that respect. There was not a
housemaid about the rooms or a groom in the stables who did not know how
terrible a reprobate their master had been.

"You will see your father before you go to bed?" Miss Scarborough said
to her nephew as she left the room.

"Certainly, if he will send to say that he wishes it."

"He does wish it, most anxiously."

"I believe that to be your imagination. At any rate, I will come--say in
an hour's time. He would be just as pleased to see Harry Annesley, for
the matter of that, or Mr. Grey, or the inspector of police. Any one
whom he could shock, or pretend to shock, by the peculiarity of his
opinions, would do as well." By that time, however, Miss Scarborough had
left the room.

Then the three men sat and talked, and discussed the affairs of the
family generally. New leases had just been granted for adding
manufactories to the town of Tretton: and as far as outward marks of
prosperity went all was prosperous. "I expe