if he can help it. The police for some time were in great
doubt whether they would not arrest him. I think I am justified in
saying that he is a thorough reprobate."

"You are not at all justified," said the father.

"I can only express my opinion, and am glad to say that the world agrees
with me."

"It is sickening, absolutely sickening," said the squire, turning to the
attorney. "You would not believe, now--"

But he stopped himself. "What would not Mr. Grey believe?" asked the
son.

"There is no one one knows better than you that after the row in the
street,--when Mountjoy was, I believe, the aggressor,--he was again seen
by another person. I hate such deceit and scheming." Here Augustus
smiled. "What are you sniggering there at, you blockhead?"

"Your hatred, sir, at deceit and scheming. The truth is that when a man
plays a game well, he does not like to find that he has any equal.
Heaven forbid that I should say that there is rivalry here. You, sir,
are so pre-eminently the first that no one can touch you." Then he
laughed long,--a low, bitter, inaudible laugh,--during which Mr. Grey sat
silent.

"This comes well from you!" said the father.

"Well, sir, you would try your hand upon me. I have passed over all that
you have done on my behalf. But when you come to abuse me I cannot quite
take your words as calmly as though there had been--no, shall I say,
antecedents? Now about this money. Are we to pay it?"

"I don't care one straw about the money. What is it to me? I don't owe
these creditors anything."

"Nor do I."

"Let them rest, then, and do the worst they can. But upon the whole, Mr.
Grey," he added, after a pause, "I think we had better pay them. They
have endeavored to be insolent to me, and I have therefore ignored their
claim. I have told them to do their worst. If my son here will agree
with you in raising the money, and if Mountjoy,--as he, too, is
necessary,--will do so, I too will do what is required of me. If eighty
thousand pounds will settle it all, there ought not to be any
difficulty. You can inquire what the real amount would be. If they
choose to hold to their bonds, nothing will come of it;--that's all."

"Very well, Mr. Scarborough. Then I shall know how to proceed. I
understand that Mr. Scarborough, junior, is an assenting party?" Mr.
Scarborough, junior, signified his assent by nodding his head.

"That will do, then, for I think that I have a little exhausted myself."
Then he