elcome to remain at Rawdon Court."

"And he would deserve to do it if he were that low-minded; but if I know
Squire Percival, he will go to the poor-house first. Fred, you would
surely scorn such a dirty thing as selling the old man out of house and
home?"

"I want my money, or else I want Rawdon Manor."

"And I have no objections either to your wanting it or having it, but,
for goodness' sake, wait until death gives you a decent warrant for
buying it."

"I am afraid to delay. The Squire has been very cool with me lately, and
my agent tells me the Tyrrel-Rawdons have been visiting him, also that
he has asked a great many questions about the Judge and Ethel. He is
evidently trying to prevent me getting possession, and I know that old
Nicholas Rawdon would give his eyelids to own Rawdon Court. As to the
Judge----"

"My son wants none of it. You can make your mind easy on that score."

"I think I behaved very decently, though, of course, no one gives me
credit for it; for as soon as I saw I must foreclose in order to get my
own I thought at once of Ethel. It seemed to me that if we could love
each other the money claims of Mostyn and the inherited claims of Rawdon
would both be satisfied. Unfortunately, I found that I could not love
Ethel as a wife should be loved."

"And I can tell you, Fred, that Ethel never could have loved you as a
husband should be loved. She was a good deal disappointed in you from
the very first."

"I thought I made a favorable impression on her."

"In a way. She said you played the piano nicely; but Ethel is all for
handsome men, tall, erect six-footers, with a little swing and swagger
to them. She thought you small and finicky. But Ethel's rich enough to
have her fancy, I hope."

"It is little matter now what she thought. I can't please every one."

"No, it's rather harder to do that than most people think it is. I
would please my conscience first of all, Fred. That's the point worth
mentioning. And I shall just remind you of one thing more: your money
all in a lump on Rawdon Manor is safe. It is in one place, and in such
shape as it can't run away nor be smuggled away by any man's trickery.
Now, then, turn your eighty thousand pounds into dollars, and divide
them among a score of securities, and you'll soon find out that a
fortune may be easily squandered when it is in a great many hands, and
that what looks satisfactory enough when reckoned up on paper doesn't
often realize in hard