it was no time for selfish
affection, just as my angel mother was laid in a foreign grave. It
required time before I could control so large a portion of the property
that had been hers. I left you in Spain, sad, but hopeful, a few months
would have brought me back prepared to save your honor and my own
happiness. You know the rest!"

CHAPTER LXIII.

JAMES HARRINGTON'S GREAT STRUGGLE.

General Harrington arose, slowly, for his limbs trembled with intense
rage, and it was with difficulty that he stood up.

"We know each other!" he said, shaking his finger at the younger
Harrington, and drawing closer and closer, till it almost touched his
face. "You have been the traitor in my household--plundered my closest
secrets--alienated my wife; talk of dishonor, sir, what was mine
compared to yours?"

But James Harrington had regained all his strength, and stood up firmly
before the infuriated old man.

"I have said before, that from the hour this lady became your wife, the
place of my sainted mother enshrined her. As I would have studied that
mother's happiness, I gave myself and all that I possessed to her
welfare and yours. My own tastes were simple, and I had no hopes. The
larger portion of my income, you have always controlled."

"And always will command, or this woman's name shall become a by-word
from Maine to Georgia!" exclaimed the General, resuming some control
over his rage. "We comprehend each other now, and can talk plainly. You
have learned some of my secrets, and shall know more. I have other debts
of honor, and no ward's fortune to pay them with: her reputation or
mine is at stake--one must save the other."

"I do not understand you, sir."

"You can very well comprehend that the contents of this precious book,
will render anything like affection for Mrs. Harrington impossible to
me. Indeed, the unhappy position in which your mother's death left me,
not only penniless, but frightfully involved, enforced this second
marriage. I can afford to forgive an outrage on affections that never
existed. So while the lady's faithlessness does not affect my interests
or my honor, I can endure it with self-complacency."

"I am shocked--astonished, sir, to hear you speak in this way!" said
James, indignantly.

The old man smiled.

"You are a dreamer, sir, which I am not. Scenes and excitements are my
abhorrence; we hold unpleasant relations toward each other. You are my
step-son. The only child of my very