Dolly and to Mr. Barry. But yet he did not regard him as an honest
man regards a rascal, and was angry with himself in consequence. He knew
that there remained with him even some spark of love for Mr.
Scarborough, which to himself was inexplicable. From the moment in which
he had first admitted the fact that Augustus Scarborough was the true
heir-at-law, he had been most determined in taking care that that
heirship should be established. It must be known to all men that
Mountjoy was not the eldest son of his father, as the law required him
to be for the inheritance of the property, and that Augustus was the
eldest son; but in arranging that these truths should be notorious it
had come to pass that he had learned to hate Augustus with an intensity
that had redounded to the advantage both of Mountjoy and their father.
It must be so. Augustus must become Augustus Scarborough, Esquire, of
Tretton,--but the worse luck for Tretton and all connected with it. And
Mr. Grey did resolve that, when that day should come, all relation
between himself and Tretton should cease.

It had never occurred to him that, by redeeming the post-obit bonds,
Mountjoy would become capable of owning and enjoying any property that
might be left to him. With Tretton, all the belongings of Tretton, in
the old-fashioned way, would, of course, go to the heir. The belongings
of Tretton, which were personal property, would, in themselves, amount
to wealth for a younger son. That which Mr. Scarborough would in this
way be able to bequeath might, probably, be worth thirty thousand
pounds. Out of the proceeds of the real property the debts had been
paid. And because Augustus had consented so to pay them he was now to be
mulcted of those loose belongings which gave its charm to Tretton!
Because Augustus had paid Mountjoy's debts Mountjoy was to be enabled to
rob Augustus! There was a wickedness in this redolent of the old squire.
But it was a wickedness in arranging which Mr. Grey hesitated to
participate. As he thought of it, however, he could not but feel what a
very clever man he had for a client.

"It will all go to the gambling-table, of course," he said that night to
Dolly.

"It is no affair of ours."

"No; but when a lawyer is consulted he has to think of the prudent or
imprudent disposition of property."

"Mr. Scarborough hasn't consulted you, papa."

"I must look at it as though he had. He tells me what he intends to do,
and I am bound to give