your opinion and authority, that you have taken an
unfounded prejudice against him, and that I neither can nor will get
rid of him, as you call it. You surely would not expect me to act
dishonorably, my lord."

"I did not send for you now to speak about him, John. I have a much more
serious, and a much more distressing communication to make to you."

The son opened his eyes, and stared at him.

"It may easily be so, my lord; but what is it?"

"Unfortunate young man, it is this--You are cut off from the inheritance
of my property and title."

"Sickness, my lord, and peevishness, have impaired your intellects, I
think. What kind of language is this to hold to me, your son and heir?"

"My son, John, but not my heir."

"Don't you know, my lord, that what you say is impossible. If I am your
son, I am, of course, your heir."

"No, John, for the simplest reason in the world. At present you must
rest contented with the fact which I announce to you--for fact it is. I
have not now strength enough to detail it; but I shall when I feel that
I am equal to it. Indeed, I knew it not myself, with perfect certainty,
until to-day. Some vague suspicion I had of late, but the proofs that
were laid before me, and laid before me in a generous and forbearing
spirit, have now satisfied me that you have no claim, as I said, to
either title or property."

"Why, as I've life, my lord, this is mere dotage. A foul conspiracy
has been got up, and you yield to it without a struggle. Do you think,
whatever you may do, that I will bear this tamely? I am aware that a
conspiracy has been getting up, and I also have had my suspicions."

"It is out of my power, John, to secure you the inheritance."

"This is stark folly, my lord--confounded nonsense--if you will pardon
me. Out of your power! Made silly and weak in mind by illness, your
opinion is not now worth much upon any subject. It is not your fault, I
admit; but, upon my soul, I really have serious doubts whether you are
in a sufficiently sane state of mind to manage your own affairs."

"Undutiful young man," replied his father, with bitterness, "if that
were a test of insanity, you yourself ought to have been this many a day
in a strait waistcoat. I know it is natural that you should feel this
blow deeply; but it is neither natural nor dutiful that you should
address your parent in such unpardonable language."

"If what that parent says be true, my lord, he has himself, by his past
vic