gift and the odd feeling he had suffered at the time,
as if it might be somehow connected with the words said, appeared to
rise up to be looked at. But one can hardly look straight at a thing of
that sort without making it change its aspect. Sensations and
impressions are subject to us; they may be reasoned down. His reason was
stronger than his fear had been, and made it look foolish. He brought
back the words, they were disjointed, they accused no one, they could
not be put together. So he covered that recollection over, and threw it
aside. He did not consciously hide it from himself, but he did know in
his own mind that he should not relate it to his brother.

"Well, you have done your part," he said at length; "and now I must see
about doing mine."

"No one could feel more keenly than I do, how hard this is upon you,"
said Brandon; but Valentine detected a tone of relief in his voice, as
if he took the words to mean a submission to the father's wish, and as
if he was glad. "My poor father might have placed some confidence in me,
instead of treating me like a child," he said bitterly; "why on earth
could he not tell me all."

"Why, my dear fellow," exclaimed Brandon; "surely if you were to
renounce the property, it would have been hard upon you and John to be
shamed or tortured by any knowledge of the crime and disgrace that it
came with."

"That it came with!" repeated Valentine; "you take that for granted,
then? You have got further than I have."

"I think, of course, that the crime was committed, or the disgrace
incurred, for the sake of the property."

"Well," said Valentine, "I am much more uncertain about the whole thing
than you seem to be. I shall make it my duty to investigate the matter.
I must find out everything; perhaps it will be only too easy; according
to what I find I shall act. One generation has no right so to dominate
over another as to keep it always in childlike bondage to a command for
which no reason is given. If, when I know, I consider that my dear
father was right, I shall of my own free-will sell the land, and divest
myself of the proceeds. If that he was wrong, I shall go and live
fearlessly and freely in that house, and on that land which, in the
course of providence, has come to me."

"Reasonable and cool," thought Brandon. "Have I any right to say more?
He will do just what he says. No one was ever more free from
superstition; and he is of age, as he reminds me."

"Very well