n Mr. Grey assenting to go, in opposition to his daughter's advice. "I
would have nothing more to do with him or his secrets," Dolly had said.

"You do not know him."

"I know as much about him as a woman can know of a man she doesn't
know,--and all from yourself. You have said over and over again that he
is a 'rascal!'"

"Not a rascal. I don't think I said he was a rascal."

"I believe you used that very word."

"Then I unsay it. A rascal has something mean about him. Juniper's a
rascal!"

"He cares nothing for his word."

"Nothing at all,--when the law is concerned."

"And he has defamed his own wife."

"That was done many years ago."

"For a fixed purpose, and not from passion," Dolly continued. "He is a
thoroughly bad man. You have made his will for him, and now I would
leave him." After that Mr. Grey declined for a second time to go. But at
last he was persuaded.

On the evening of his arrival he dined with Mountjoy and Merton, and on
that occasion Miss Scarborough joined them. Of course there was much
surmise as to the cause of this farther visit. Merton declared that, as
he had acted as the sick man's private secretary, he was bound to keep
his secret as far as he knew it. He only surmised what he believed to be
the truth, but of that he could say nothing. Miss Scarborough was
altogether in the dark. She, and she alone, spoke of her brother with
respect, but in that she knew nothing.

"I cannot tell what it is," said Mountjoy; "but I suspect it to be
something intended for my benefit and for the utter ruin of Augustus."
Miss Scarborough had now retired. "If it could be possible, I should
think that he intended to declare that all he had said before was
false." To this, however, Mr. Grey would not listen. He was very stout
in denying the possibility of any reversion of the decision to which
they had all come. Augustus was, undoubtedly, by law his father's eldest
son. He had seen with his own eyes copies of the registry of the
marriage, which Mr. Barry had gone across the Continent to make. And in
that book his wife had signed her maiden name, according to the custom
of the country. This had been done in the presence of the clergyman and
of a gentleman,--a German, then residing on the spot, who had himself
been examined, and had stated that the wedding, as a wedding, had been
regular in all respects. He was since dead, but the clergyman who had
married them was still alive. Within twelve months of th