nd it affects
our father's character."

"Your father's, not mine."

"He was the only father you ever knew, and you have no reason to find
fault with him."

Wyvis groaned impatiently. "One has duties to the living, not to the
dead."

"One has duties to the dead, too. You can't give up the Red House to
me--even if I would take it, which I won't--without having the whole
story made public. My father hasn't a very good reputation in the
County: people will think no better of him for having lamed me,
disinherited me, and practiced a fraud on them. That's what they will
say about the affair, you know. We can't let the world know."

"Then I'd better go and shoot myself. It seems to me the only thing I
can do."

"And what about Julian? The estate would pass to him, of course," said
Cuthbert, coolly. He saw that Wyvis' face changed a little at the
mention of Julian's name.

"No, I could will it to you--make it over to you, with the condition
that it should go to the Foundling Hospital if you wouldn't accept it."

"I think that a will of that kind could be easily set aside on the
ground of insanity," said Cuthbert, with a slight smile.

"I could find a way out of the difficulty, if I tried, I have no
doubt," said Wyvis, frowning gloomily and pulling at his moustache.

"_Don't_ try," said his brother, leaning forward and speaking
persuasively. "Let things continue much as they are. I am content: Nora
is content. Why should you not be so, too?" Then, as Wyvis shook his
head: "Make your mind easy then if you must do something, by giving me a
sum down, or a slice of your income, old man. Upon my word I wouldn't
live in the old place if you gave it to me. It is picturesque--but damp.
Come let's compromise matters."

"I love every stick and stone in the place," said Wyvis grimly.

"I know you do. I don't. I want to live in Paris or Vienna with Nora,
and enjoy myself I don't want to paint pot-boilers. I say like the man
in the parable, 'Give me the portion that belongeth to me,' and I'll go
my way, promising, however, not to spend it in riotous living. Won't
that arrangement suit you?"

Wyvis demurred at first, but was finally persuaded into making an
arrangement of the kind that Cuthbert desired. He retained the Red
House, but he bestowed on his brother enough to give him an ample income
for the life that Cuthbert and Nora wished to lead. During his absence
from England, Mrs. Brand and Julian were still to inhabit the