'unless you can do
anything with the boy. I am glad that I am not his guardian!'

'I wish I was,' sighed Louis.

'I suppose you will grow older some day,' said Lord Ormersfield.
'However, I see you will not be contented without going your own way to
work.'

'When the Earl saw his son the next day, Louis looked radiant at having
taken one step. He had seen his aunt, and she had endured the
revelation with more equanimity than he could have supposed possible.
'It was a house where they took things easily,' as he said; a house
where nothing was more feared than a scene; and Lady Conway had thanked
her nephew greatly for his communication; promised what he did not ask,
that he should not be betrayed to Walter; assured him that the butler
should be dismissed, without giving any reason, before the summer
holidays; and for the few remaining days before Walter returned to
Eton, she thought she might reckon on her dear Fitzjocelyn for keeping
his eye upon him: no doubt all would be right when Delaford was once
gone.

It was the old want of a high standard--the love of ease rather than
the love of right. The Earl laughed at her short-sighted policy, and
resented her saddling Louis with the care of her son; while Louis
philosophized upon good-nature, and its use and abuse.

Whether Mr. Delaford learnt that Sir Walter had betrayed him to Lord
Fitzjocelyn, or whether he took alarm from the young gentleman being
kept under surveillance, he scented danger; and took the initiative, by
announcing to my Lady that he intended to retire from his situation
into private life at the month's end.

Lady Conway rejoiced in being spared the fabrication by which she had
intended to dismiss her paragon without hurting his feelings, thanked
Fitzjocelyn more than ever, and was sure that dear Walter would do very
well.

But no sooner had Delaford departed than a series of discoveries began
to be made. Lady Conway's bills reached back to dates far beyond those
of the cheques which she had put into Delaford's hands to pay them, and
a tissue of peculation began to reveal itself, so alarming and
bewildering to her, that she implored her nephew to investigate it for
her.

Louis, rather against the will of his father, who was jealous of any
additional tasks thrown on him, entered into the matter with the head
of an accountant, and the zeal of a pursuer of justice; and stirred up
a frightful mass of petty and unblushing fraud, long practised