is not altogether
water-tight." Then Augustus, finding that he had told as much as was
needful to Septimus Jones, left his friend and went about his own family
business.

On the next morning Septimus Jones took his departure, and on the day
following Augustus followed him. "So you're off?" his father said to
him when he came to make his adieux.

"Well, yes; I suppose so. A man has got so many things to look after
which he can't attend to down here."

"I don't know what they are, but you understand it all. I'm not going to
ask you to stay. Does it ever occur to you that you may never see me
again?"

"What a question!"

"It's one that requires an answer, at any rate."

"It does occur to me; but not at all as probable."

"Why not probable?"

"Because there's a telegraph wire from Tretton to London; and because
the journey down here is very short. It also occurs to me to think so
from what has been said by Sir William Brodrick. Of course any man may
die suddenly."

"Especially when the surgeons have been at him."

"You have your sister with you, sir, and she will be of more comfort to
you than I can be. Your condition is in some respects an advantage to
you. These creditors of Mountjoy can't force their way in upon you."

"You are wrong there."

"They have not done so."

"Nor should they, though I were as strong as you. What are Mountjoy's
creditors to me? They have not a scrap of my handwriting in their
possession. There is not one who can say that he has even a verbal
promise from me. They never came to me when they wanted to lend him
money at fifty per cent. Did they ever hear me say that he was my heir?"

"Perhaps not."

"Not one has ever heard it. It was not to them I lied, but to you and to
Grey. D---- the creditors! What do I care for them, though they be all
ruined?"

"Not in the least."

"Why do you talk to me about the creditors? You, at any rate, know the
truth." Then Augustus quitted the room, leaving his father in a passion.
But, as a fact, he was by no means assured as to the truth. He supposed
that he was the heir; but might it not be possible that his father had
contrived all this so as to save the property from Mountjoy and that
greedy pack of money-lenders? Grey must surely know the truth. But why
should not Grey be deceived on the second event as well as the first.
There was no limit, Augustus sometimes thought, to his father's
cleverness. This idea had occurred to him within the