ave nothing to say to him."

"Well, I may have expressed myself wrongly, and perhaps you did say
nothing. I was alluding especially to what you have done."

"I will tell you exactly what I have done. I thought he showed a high
spirit when he threw up his fellowship, and as I had always a great
contempt for those Oxford fellows, I sent him a thousand pounds. It
was a present, and I hope he will make good use of it."

"I am sure he will," said Sir Lionel, who certainly had just cause
for such confidence, seeing how large a slice out of the sum had been
placed at his own disposal.

"I am sure he will," said Sir Lionel. "Indeed, I know that he has."

"Ah, I'm glad to hear of it; of course you know more about it than I
do; of course you are arranging these matters. But that is all he has
had from me, and all that he is likely to have."

If such were to be the treatment of George, of George who was
certainly in some respects a favourite, what hope could Sir Lionel
have for himself? But it was not so much his brother's words which
led him to fear that his brother's money-bags were impregnable to him
as his brother's voice and his brother's eye. That eye was never off
him, and Sir Lionel did begin to wish that he was at Littlebath.

"I don't know whether George may have formed any hopes," continued
the old man; but here Sir Lionel interrupted him, and not
imprudently: if anything was to be said, it should be said now.

"Well, if he has formed hopes, George, you cannot but own that it is
natural. He has looked on you as a man without any child of your own,
and he has been taught so to look by your treating him almost as
though he were your son."

"You mean that I paid his school debts and his Oxford debts when you
forgot to do so," growled out the elder brother.

"Yes, and that you afterwards gave him an income when he came up
to live in London. I hope you do not think that I am ungrateful,
George?" and Sir Lionel used his softest and, at the same time, his
most expressive tone.

"Grateful! I seldom look for much gratitude. But I shall be glad to
know when it may suit you to settle with me. The account has been
running on now for a great many years. Probably Pritchett may have
sent it you." And as he spoke Mr. Bertram rose from his chair and
took an ominous-looking piece of paper from off the mantelpiece.

"Yes, Mr. Pritchett is punctuality itself in these matters," said Sir
Lionel, with a gentle laugh, which had n