at time Mr.
Scarborough and his bride had arrived in England, and Augustus had been
born. "Nothing but the most indisputable evidence would have sufficed to
prove a fact by which you were so cruelly wronged," he said, addressing
himself to Mountjoy. "And when your father told me that no wrong could
be done to you, as the property was hopelessly in the hands of the Jews,
I told him that, for all purposes of the law, the Jews were as dear to
me as you were. I do say that nothing but the most certain facts would
have convinced me. Such facts, when made certain, are immovable. If your
father has any plot for robbing Augustus, he will find me as staunch a
friend to Augustus as ever I have been to you." When he had so spoken
they separated for the night, and his words had been so strong that they
had altogether affected Mountjoy. If such were his father's intentions,
it must be by some farther plot that he endeavored to carry it out: and
in his father's plots he would put no trust whatever.

And yet he declared his own purpose as he discussed the matter, late
into the night, with Merton. "I cannot trust Grey at all, nor my father
either, because I do not believe, as Grey believes, this story of the
marriage. My father is so clever, and so resolute in his purpose to set
aside all control over the property as arranged by law, that to my mind
it has all been contrived by himself. Either Mr. Barry has been squared,
or the German parson, or the foreign gentleman, or more probably all of
them. Mr. Grey himself may have been squared, for all I know, though he
is the kindest-hearted gentleman I ever came across. Anything shall be
more probable to me than that I am not my father's eldest son." To all
this Mr. Merton said very little, though no doubt he had his own ideas.

The next morning the three gentlemen, with Mr. Grey's clerk, sat down to
breakfast, solemn and silent. The clerk had been especially entreated to
say nothing of what he had learned, and was therefore not questioned by
his master. But in truth he had learned but little, having spent his
time in the sorting and copying of letters which, though they all bore
upon the subject in hand, told nothing of the real tale. Farther
surmises were useless now, as at eleven o'clock Mr. Grey and Mr. Merton
were to go up together to the squire's room. The clerk was to remain
within call, but there would be no need of Mountjoy. "I suppose I may as
well go to bed," said he, "or up to Lo