conceive such a plot, and the wit
to carry it out. If Mountjoy had run only decently straight, or not more
than indecently crooked, I should have been a younger brother,
practising law in the Temple to the end of my days. The story of Esau
and of Jacob is as nothing to it. But that is not the most remarkable
circumstance. My father, for purposes of his own, which includes the
absolute throwing over of Mountjoy's creditors, changes his plan, and is
pleased to restore to me that of which he had resolved to rob me. What
father would dare to look in the face of the son whom he had thus
resolved to defraud? My father tells me the story with a gentle chuckle,
showing almost as much indifference to Mountjoy's ruin as to my
recovered prosperity. He has not a blush when he reveals it all. He has
not a word to say, or, as far as I can see, a thought as to the world's
opinion. No doubt he is supposed to be dying. I do presume that three or
four months will see the end of him. In the mean time he takes it all as
quietly as though he had simply lent a five-pound note to Mountjoy out
of my pocket."

"You, at any rate, will get your property?"

"Oh, yes; and that, no doubt, is his argument when he sees me. He is
delighted to have me down at Tretton, and, to tell the truth, I do not
feel the slightest animosity toward him. But as I look at him I think
him to be the most remarkable old gentleman that the world has ever
produced. He is quite unconscious that I have any ground of complaint
against him."

"He has probably thought that the circumstances of your brother's birth
should not militate against his prospects."

"But the law, my dear fellow," said Scarborough, getting up from his
chair and standing with his cigar between his finger and thumb,--"the law
thinks otherwise. The making of all right and wrong in this world
depends on the law. The half-crown in my pocket is merely mine because
of the law. He did choose to marry my mother before I was born, but did
not choose to go through that ceremony before my brother's time. That
may be a trifle to you, or to my moral feeling may be a trifle; but
because of that trifle all Tretton will be my property, and his attempt
to rob me of it was just the same as though he should break into a bank
and steal what he found there. He knows that just as well as I do, but
to suit his own purposes he did it."

There was something in the way in which the young man spoke both of his
father and mo