rriage.

He declared that he had more than once made up his mind to destroy those
Rummelsburg documents, but had always been deterred by the reflection
that, when they were once gone, they could not be brought back again. "I
had always intended," he had said, "to burn the papers the last thing
before my death. But as I learned Augustus's character, I made quite
certain by causing them to be sealed up in a parcel addressed to him, so
that if I had died by accident they might have fallen into proper hands.
But I see now the wickedness of my project, and, therefore, I give them
over to Mr. Grey." So saying he tendered the parcel to the attorney.

Mr. Grey, of course, refused to take, or even to touch, the Rummelsburg
parcel. He then prepared to leave the room, declaring it would be his
duty to act on the part of Augustus, should Augustus be pleased to
accept his services. But Mr. Scarborough, almost with tears, implored
him to change his purpose. "Why should you set two brothers by the
ears?" At this Mr. Grey only shook his head incredulously. "And why ruin
the property without an object?"

"The property will come to ruin."

"Not if you will take the matter up in the proper spirit. But if you
determine to drive one brother to hostility against the other, and
promote unnecessary litigation, of course the lawyers will get it all."
Then Mr. Grey left the room, boiling with anger in that he, with his
legal knowledge and determination to do right, had been so utterly
thrown aside; while Mr. Scarborough sank exhausted by the effort he had
gone through.

CHAPTER LV.

MR. GREY'S REMORSE.

Mr. Grey's feeling, as he returned home, was chiefly one of
self-reproach; so that, though he persisted in not believing the story
which had been told to him, he did, in truth, believe it. He believed,
at any rate, in Mr. Scarborough. Mr. Scarborough had determined that the
property should go hither and thither according to his will, without
reference to the established laws of the land, and had carried, and
would carry his purpose. His object had been to save his estate from the
hands of those harpies, the money-lenders; and as far as he was
concerned he would have saved it.

He had, in fact, forced the money-lenders to lend their money without
interest and without security, and then to consent to accept their
principal when it was offered to them. No one could say but that the
deed when done was a good deed. But this man in do