from rich, and so he rode his feelings with
a hard grip upon the reins. And then, in an evil hour for poor Diana,
young Westmacott had taken him to Lupton House, and Sir Rowland had his
first glimpse of Ruth, his first knowledge of her fortune. He went down
before Ruth's eyes like a man of heart; he went down more lowly still
before her possessions like a man of greed; and poor Diana might console
herself with whom she could.

Her brother watched him, appraised him, and thought that in this broken
gamester he had a man after his own heart; a man who would be ready
enough for such a bargain as Richard had in mind; ready enough to
sell what rags might be left him of his honour so that he came by the
wherewithal to mend his broken fortunes.

The twain made terms. They haggled like any pair of traders out of
Jewry, but in the end it was settled--by a bond duly engrossed and
sealed--that on the day that Sir Rowland married Ruth he should make
over to her brother certain values that amounted to perhaps a quarter of
her possessions. There was no cause to think that Ruth would be greatly
opposed to this--not that that consideration would have weighed with
Richard.

But now that all essentials were so satisfactorily determined a vexation
was offered Westmacott by the circumstance that his sister seemed nowise
taken with Sir Rowland. She suffered him because he was her brother's
friend; on that account she even honoured him with some measure of her
own friendship; but to no greater intimacy did her manner promise to
admit him. And meanwhile, Mr. Wilding persisted in the face of all
rebuffs. Under his smiling mask he hid the smart of the wounds she dealt
him, until it almost seemed to him that from loving her he had come to
hate her.

It had been well for Richard had he left things as they were and waited.
Whether Blake prospered or not, leastways it was clear that Wilding
would not prosper, and that, for the season, was all that need have
mattered to young Richard.

But in his cups that night he had thought in some dim way to precipitate
matters by affronting Mr. Wilding, secure, as I have shown, in his
belief that Wilding would perish sooner than raise a finger against
Ruth's brother. And his drunken astuteness, it seemed, had been to
his mind as a piece of bottle glass to the sight, distorting the image
viewed through it.

With some such bitter reflection rode he home to his sleepless couch.
Some part of those dark hou