estion he paused for an answer.

Mr. Grey had had no personal interview with the squire since the time at
which it had been declared that Mountjoy was not the heir. Then some
very severe words had been spoken. Mr. Grey had first sworn that he did
not believe a word of what was said to him, and had refused to deal with
the matter at all. If carried out Mr. Scarborough must take it to some
other lawyer's office. There had, since that, been a correspondence as
to much of which Mr. Scarborough had been forced to employ an
amanuensis. Gradually Mr. Grey had assented, in the first instance on
behalf of Mountjoy, and then on behalf of Augustus. But he had done so
in the expectation that he should never again see the squire in this
world. He, too, had been assured that the man would die, and had felt
that it would be better that the management of things should then be in
honest hands, such as his own, and in the hands of those who understood
them, than be confided to those who did not not understand them, and who
might probably not be honest.

But the squire had not died, and here he was again at Tretton as the
squire's guest. "I think," said Mr. Grey. "that the less said about a
good deal of it the better."

"That, of course, is sweeping condemnation, which, however, I expect.
Let that be all as though it had been expressed. You don't understand
the inner man which rules me,--how it has struggled to free itself from
conventionalities. Nor do I quite understand how your inner man has
succumbed to them and encouraged them."

"I have encouraged an obedience to the laws of my country. Men generally
find it safer to do so."

"Exactly, and men like to be safe. Perhaps a condition of danger has
had its attractions for me. It is very stupid, but perhaps it is so. But
let that go. The rope has been round my own neck and not round that of
others. Perhaps I have thought of late that if danger should come I
could run away from it all, by the help of the surgeon. They have become
so skilful now that a man has no chance in that way. But what do you
think of Mountjoy and Augustus?"

"I think that Mountjoy has been very ill-used."

"But I endeavored to do the best I could for him."

"And that Augustus has been worse used."

"But he, at any rate, has been put right quite in time. Had he been
brought up as the eldest son he might have done as Mountjoy did." Then
there came a little gleam of satisfaction across the squire's face as he