must have offended him then very greatly."

"Oh, mortally! I said everything I possibly could to offend him. But
then he would have been here still had I not done so. There was no other
way to get rid of him,--or indeed to make him believe that I was in
earnest."

"I am sorry that you should have been so ungracious."

"Of course I am ungracious. But how can you stand bandying compliments
with a man when it is your object to make him know the very truth that
is in you? It was your fault, papa. You ought to have understood how
very impossible it is that I should marry Mr. Barry."

CHAPTER LIII.

THE BEGINNING OF THE LAST PLOT.

When Mr. Scarborough had written the check and sent it to Mr. Grey, he
did not utter another word on the subject of gambling. "Let us make
another beginning," he said, as he told his son to make out another
check for sixty pounds as his first instalment of the allowance.

"I do not like to take it," said the son.

"I don't think you need be scrupulous now with me." That was early in
the morning, at their first interview, about ten o'clock. Later on in
the day Mr. Scarborough saw his son again, and on this occasion kept him
in the room some time. "I don't suppose I shall last much longer now,"
he said.

"Your voice is as strong as I ever heard it."

"But unfortunately my body does not keep pace with my voice. From what
Merton says, I don't suppose there is above a month left."

"I don't see why Merton is to know."

"Merton is a good fellow; and if you can do anything for him, do it for
my sake."

"I will." Then he added, after a pause, "If things go as we expect,
Augustus can do more for him than I. Why don't you leave him a sum of
money?"

Then Miss Scarborough came into the room, and hovered about her brother,
and fed him, and entreated him to be silent; but when she had gone he
went back to the subject. "I will tell you why, Mountjoy. I have not
wished to load my will with other considerations,--so that it might be
seen that solicitude for you has been in my last moments my only
thought. Of course I have done you a deep injury."

"I think you have."

"And because you tell me so I like you all the better. As for
Augustus--But I will not burden my spirit now, at the last, with
uttering curses against my own son."

"He is not worth it."

"No, he is not worth it. What a fool he has been not to have understood
me better! Now, you are not half as clever a fellow as he i