and shame."

"Why, yes, I'm come on the wrong side as to birth, I admit; but if I
clutch the property and title, I'll thank heaven every day I live for my
mother's frailty."

"It was not frailty, you unfeeling boy," replied Ginty, "so much as my
father's credulity and ambition. I was once said to be beautiful, and
he, having taken it into his head that this man, when young, might love
me, went to the expense of having me well educated. He then threw me
perpetually into his society; but I was young and artless at the time,
and believed his solemn oaths and promises of marriage."

"And the greater villain he," observed her brother; "for I myself did
not think there could be danger in your intimacy, because you and he
were foster-children; and, except in his case, I never knew another
throughout the length and breadth of the country, where the obligation
of that tie was forgotten."

"Well," observed Ambrose, "we must only make the best of our position.
If I succeed, you shall, according to our written agreement, be all
provided for. Not that I would feel very strongly disposed to do much
for that enigmatical old grandfather of mine. The vile old ferret saw
me in the lock-up the other morning, and refused to bail me out; ay, and
threatened me besides."

"He did right," replied his uncle; "and if you're caught there again,
I'll not only never bail you out, but wash my hands of the whole affair.
So now be warned, and let it be for your good. Listen, then; for the
case in which you stand is this: there is Miss Gourlay and Dunroe
going to be married after all; for she has returned to her father, and
consented to marry the young lord. The baronet, too, is ill, and I don't
think will live long. He is burned out like a lime-kiln; for, indeed,
like that, his whole life has been nothing but smoke and fire. Very
well; now pay attention. If we wait until these marriage articles are
drawn up, the appearance or the discovery of this heir here will create
great confusion; and you may take my word that every opposition will be
given, and every inquiry made by Dunroe, who, as there seems to be
no heir, will get the property; for it goes, in that case, with Miss
Gourlay. Every knot is more easily tied than untied. Let us produce the
heir, then, before the property's disposed of, and then we won't have
to untie the knot--to invalidate the marriage articles. So far, so
good--that's our plan. But again, there's the baronet ill; should he