s."

"I dare say not."

"You never read a book, I suppose?"

"I don't pretend to read them, which he does."

"I don't know anything about that;--but he has been utterly unable to
read me. I have poured out my money with open hands for both of you."

"That is true, sir, certainly, as regards me."

"And have thought nothing of it. Till it was quite hopeless with you I
went on, and would have gone on. As things were then, I was bound to do
something to save the property."

"These poor devils have put themselves out of the running now," said
Mountjoy.

"Yes; Augustus with his suspicions has enabled us to do that. After all,
he was quite right with his suspicions."

"What do you mean by that, sir?"

"Well, it was natural enough that he should not trust me. I think, too,
that perhaps he saw a screw loose where old Grey did not; but he was
such an ass that he could not bring himself to keep on good terms with
me for the few months that were left. And then he brought that brute
Jones down here, without saying a word to me as to asking my leave. And
here he used to remain, hardly ever coming to see me, but waiting for my
death from day to day. He is a cold-blooded, selfish brute. He certainly
takes after neither his father nor his mother. But he will find yet,
perhaps, that I am even with him before all is over."

"I shall try it on with him, sir. I have told you so from the beginning;
and now if I have this money it will give me the means of doing so. You
ought to know for what purpose I shall use it."

"That is all settled," said the father. "The document, properly
completed, has gone back with the clerk. Were I to die this minute you
would find that everything inside the house is your own,--and everything
outside except the bare acres. There is a lot of plate with the banker
which I have not wanted of late years. And there are a lot of trinkets
too,--things which I used to fancy, though I have not cared so much about
them lately. And there are a few pictures which are worth money. But the
books are the most valuable; only you do not care for them."

"I shall not have a house to put them in."

"There is no saying. What an idiot, what a fool, what a blind,
unthinking ass Augustus has been!"

"Do you regret it, sir,--that he should not have them and the house too?"

"I regret that my son should have been such a fool! I did not expect
that he should love me. I did not even want him to be kind to me. Had he
rem