o him some
time,--it would be a vast satisfaction to me to tell the old man that
we can get along without any of his ill-gotten gains. He made the
bulk of his fortune during the war, you know. The old sea-serpent,"
continued Mr. Slocum, with hopeless confusion of metaphor, "had a
hand in fitting out more than one blockade-runner. They used to talk
of a ship that got away from Charleston with a cargo of cotton that
netted the share-holders upwards of two hundred thousand dollars. He
denies it now, but everybody knows Shackford. He'd betray his country
for fifty cents in postage-stamps."

"Oh, papa! you are too hard on him."

In words dropped cursorily from time to time, Margaret imparted to
Richard the substance of her father's speech, and it set Richard
reflecting. It was not among the probabilities that Lemuel Shackford
would advance a dollar to establish Richard, but if he could induce
his cousin even to take the matter into consideration, Richard felt
that it would be a kind of moral support to him circumstanced as he
was. His pride revolted at the idea of coming quite unbacked and
disowned, as well as empty-handed, to Mr. Slocum.

For the last twelve months there had been a cessation of ordinary
courtesies between the two cousins. They now passed each other on the
street without recognition. A year previously Mr. Shackford had
fallen ill, and Richard, aware of the inefficient domestic
arrangements in Welch's Court, had gone to the house out of sheer
pity. The old man was in bed, and weak with fever, but at seeing
Richard he managed to raise himself on one elbow.

"Oh, it's you!" he exclaimed, mockingly. "When a rich man is sick
the anxious heirs crowd around him; but they're twice as honestly
anxious when he is perfectly well."

"I came to see if I could do anything for you!" cried Richard,
with a ferocious glare, and in a tone that went curiously with his
words, and shook to the foundations his character of Good Samaritan.

"The only thing you can do for me is to go away."

"I'll do that with pleasure," retorted Richard bitterly.

And Richard went, vowing he would never set foot across the
threshold again. He could not help having ugly thoughts. Why should
all the efforts to bring about a reconciliation and all the
forbearance be on his side? Thenceforth the crabbed old man might go
to perdition if he wanted to.

And now here was Richard meditating a visit to that same house to
beg a favor!

Nothing b