joy's hiding-place, and if so, how had he learned it? Why was it
that Harry should be acquainted with that which was dark to all the
world besides? Jones was of opinion that the squire knew all about it,
and thought it not improbable that the squire and Augustus had the
secret in their joint keeping. But if so, how should Harry Annesley know
anything about it? "He has lied like the very devil," continued
Augustus, after a pause.

"Has he, now?"

"And I don't mean to spare him."

"I should think not." Then there was a pause, at the end of which Jones
found himself driven to ask a question: "How has he lied?" Augustus
smiled and shook his head, from which the other man gathered that he was
not now to be told the nature of the lie in question. "A fellow that
lies like that," said Jones, "is not to be endured."

"I do not mean to endure him. You have heard of a young lady named Miss
Mountjoy, a cousin of ours?"

"Mountjoy's Miss Mountjoy?" suggested Jones.

"Yes, Mountjoy's Miss Mountjoy. That, of course, is over. Mountjoy has
brought himself to such a pass that he is not entitled to have a Miss
Mountjoy any longer. It seems the proper thing that she shall pass, with
the rest of the family property, to the true heir."

"You marry her!"

"We need not talk about that just at present. I don't know that I've
made up my mind. At any rate, I do not intend that Harry Annesley shall
have her."

"I should think not."

"He's a pestilential cur, that has got himself introduced into the
family, and the sooner we get quit of him the better. I should think the
young lady would hardly fancy him when she knows that he has lied like
the very devil, with the object of getting her former lover out of the
way."

"By Jove, no, I should think not!"

"And when the world comes to understand that Harry Annesley, in the
midst of all these inquiries, knows all about poor Mountjoy,--was the
last to see him in London,--and has never come forward to say a word
about him, then I think the world will be a little hard upon the
immaculate Harry Annesley. His own uncle has quarrelled with him
already."

"What uncle?"

"The gentleman down in Hertfordshire, on the strength of whose acres
Master Harry is flaunting it about in idleness. I have my eyes open and
can see as well as another. When Harry lectures me about my father and
my father about me, one would suppose that there's not a hole in his own
coat. I think he'll find that the garment