many a mile of the future. "I 'll see him
to-night, and try what can be done. In a few days you will have turned
over in your mind what you yourself destine for him,--the fortune you
mean to give--"

"It is already done," said Glencore, laying a sealed letter on the
table. "All that I purpose in his behalf you will find there."

"All this detail is too much for you, Glencore," said the other, seeing
that a weary, depressed expression had come over him, while his
voice grew weaker with every word. "I shall not leave this till late
to-morrow, so that we can meet again. And now good night."

CHAPTER XVII. A TETE-A-TETE

When Harcourt was aroused from his sound sleep by Upton, and requested
in the very blandest tones of that eminent diplomatist to lend him every
attention of his "very remarkable faculties," he was not by any
means certain that he was not engaged in a strange dream; nor was the
suspicion at all dispelled by the revelations addressed to him.

"Just dip the end of that towel in the water, Upton, and give it to me,"
cried he at last; and then, wiping his face and forehead, said, "Have I
heard you aright,--there was no marriage?"

Upton nodded assent.

"What a shameful way he has treated this poor boy, then!" cried the
other. "I never heard of anything equal to it in cruelty, and I conclude
it was breaking this news to the lad that drove him out to sea on that
night, and brought on this brain fever. By Jove, I 'd not take _his_
title, and _your_ brains, to have such a sin on my conscience!"

"We are happily not called on to judge the act," said Upton, cautiously.

"And why not? Is it not every honest man's duty to reprobate whatever
he detects dishonorable or disgraceful? I do judge him, and sentence him
too, and I say, moreover, that a more cold-blooded piece of cruelty
I never heard of. He trains up this poor boy from childhood to fancy
himself the heir to his station and fortune; he nurses in him all the
pride that only a high rank can cover; and then, when the lad's years
have brought him to the period when these things assume all their value,
he sends for him to tell him he is a bastard."

"It is not impossible that I think worse of Glencore's conduct than you
do yourself," said Upton, gravely.

"But you never told him so, I'll be sworn,--you never said to him it
was a rascally action. I'll lay a hundred pounds on it, you only
expostulated on the inexpediency, or the inconvenience, or some s