we have talked over you and your
affairs a hundred times together, and yet he has never even alluded to
this? One would think that such an event would make an impression upon
most men; but, assuredly, he is either the most forgetful or the most
generous fellow on earth."

"How very strange! And so you tell me that he remembers my name, and all
the circumstances of that singular bequest for singular it was from a
man whom I never saw since he was a boy."

"He remembers it all. It was the last blow fortune dealt him, and,
indeed, he seemed scarcely to require so heavy a stroke to fell
him, for, by his own account, he had been struggling on, in debt and
difficulty, for many a year, putting off creditors by the plausible plea
that a considerable estate must eventually fall in to him. It is quite
certain that he believed this himself, but he also maintained a course
of expenditure that, were he even in possession of the property, it
would have been impossible to keep up. His brother-in-law's parsimony,
too, was a constant source of self-gratulation to him, fancying, as he
did, that a considerable sum in Bank stock would be among the benefits
of this bequest. To find himself cut off, without even a mention of his
name, was, then, to know that he was utterly, irretrievably ruined."

"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Onslow; "I never suspected the case had been
so hard a one. His letters you shall see them yourself bore all the
evidence of a man more touchy on the score of a point of honor than
mindful of a mere money matter. He seemed desirous of imputing to me
who, as I have told you, never saw Mr. Godfrey for above forty years
something like undue influence, and, in fact, of having prejudiced his
brother-in-law against him. He dated his angry epistles from a park or a
castle I forget which and they bore a seal of armorial pretensions
such as an archduke might acknowledge. All these signs seemed to me so
indicative of fortune and standing, that I set my friend down for a very
bloodthirsty Irishman, but assuredly never imagined that poverty had
contributed its sting to the injury."

"I can easily conceive all that," said Grounsell. "At this very moment,
with want staring him on every side, he 'd rather talk of his former
style at confound the barbarous place, I never can remember the name
of it than he 'd listen to any suggestion for the future benefit of his
children."

"I have been a grievous enemy to him," said Sir Stafford, m