discovery."

"Do you justify him in pitching into me like a big brute?" asked Guy,
hastily.

"No; but still, I think it, was natural, under the circumstances. You
should have kept out of his way, and let him alone."

"Won't you punish him for attacking me?" demanded Guy, indignantly.

"I will speak to him on the subject," said Allan Roscoe; "and will tell
him my opinion of his act."

"Then shan't I be revenged upon him?" asked Guy, disappointed.

"Listen, Guy," said his father. "Is it no punishment that the boy
is stripped of all his possessions, while you step into his place?
Henceforth he will be dependent upon me, and later, upon you. He has
been hurled down from his proud place as owner of Castle Roscoe, and I
have taken his place, as you will hereafter do."

"Yes," said Guy, gleefully; "it will be a proud day when I become master
of the estate."

Allan Roscoe was not a specially sensitive man, but this remark of his
son jarred upon him.

"You seem to forget, Guy, that you do not succeed till I am dead!"

"Yes, I suppose so," answered Guy, slowly.

"It almost seems as if you were in a hurry for me to die."

"I didn't mean that, but it's natural to suppose that I shall live
longer than you do, isn't it?"

"I suppose so," returned Allan Roscoe, shortly.

"Of course that's what I mean."

"Then, since you are so much better off than Hector, you had better be
more considerate, and leave him to get over his disappointment as well
as he can."

"Shall I send in Hector to see you?" asked Guy, as he at length turned
to leave the room.

"Yes."

"You're to go in to my father," said Guy, reappearing on the lawn; "he's
going to give it to you."

Hector anticipated some such summons, and he had remained in the same
spot, too proud to have it supposed that he shrank from the interview.

With a firm, resolute step, he entered the presence of Allan Roscoe.

"I hear you wish to see me, Mr. Roscoe," he said, manfully.

"Yes, Hector; Guy has come to me with complaints of you."

"If he says I knocked him down for insulting me, he has told you the
truth," said Hector, sturdily.

"That was the substance of what he said, though he did not admit the
insult."

"But for that I should not have attacked him."

"I do not care to interfere in boys' quarrels, except in extreme
cases," said Mr. Roscoe. "I am afraid Guy was aggravating, and you were
unnecessarily violent."

"It doesn't seem to me so," said Hector.