ith a cause. I do not care if I quarrel with
him again. He shall never marry Florence Mountjoy if I can help it. But
to rob a fellow of his property I think a very shabby thing." Then
Augustus got up and walked out of the chambers into the street, and
Mountjoy soon followed him.

"I must make him understand that he must leave this at once," said
Augustus to himself, "and if necessary I must order the supplies to be
cut off."

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE SCARBOROUGH CORRESPONDENCE.

It was as Mountjoy had said. The squire had written to him a letter
inviting him to Tretton, and telling him that it would be the best home
for him till death should have put Tretton into other hands. Mountjoy
had thought the matter over, sitting in the easy-chair in his brother's
room, and had at last declined the invitation. As his letter was
emblematic of the man, it may be as well to give it to the reader:

"My dear father,--I don't think it will suit me to go down to Tretton at
present. I don't mind the cards, and I don't doubt that you would make
it better than this place. But, to tell the truth, I don't believe a
word of what you have told to the world about my mother, and some of
these days I mean to have it out with Augustus. I shall not sit quietly
by and see Tretton taken out of my mouth. Therefore I think I had better
not go to Tretton.

"Yours truly,

"MOUNTJOY SCARBOROUGH."

This had not at all surprised the father, and had not in the least
angered him. He rather liked his son for standing up for his mother, and
was by no means offended at the expression of his son's incredulity. But
what was there in the prospect of a future lawsuit to prevent his son
coming to Tretton? There need be no word spoken as to the property.
Tretton would be infinitely more comfortable than those rooms in
Victoria Street, and he, was aware that the hospitality of Victoria
Street would not be given in an ungrudging spirit. "I shouldn't like
it," said the old squire to himself as he lay quiet on his sofa. "I
shouldn't like at all to be the humble guest of Augustus. Augustus would
certainly say a nasty word or two."

The old man knew his younger son well, and he had known, too, the
character of his elder son; but he had not calculated enough on the
change which must have been made by such a revelation as he, his father,
had made to him. Mountjoy had felt that all the world was against him,
and that, as best he might, he would make use of al