ruined me when he was a young man; and his ingratitude would have broken
my heart, if I had been weak enough to suffer myself to be crushed by
it."

"Time works changes amongst the worst of us, Mr. Nowell, I daresay your
son has improved his habits in all these years and is heartily sorry for
the errors of his youth."

"Have you seen him, Medler?" the old man asked quickly.

"Seen your son lately? No; indeed, my dear sir, I had no notion that he
was in England."

The fact is, that Percival Nowell had called upon Mr. Medler more than
once since his arrival in London; and had discussed with that gentleman
the chances of his father's having made, or not made, a will, and the
possibility of the old man's being so far reconciled to him as to make a
will in his favour. Percival Nowell had gone farther than this, and had
promised the attorney a handsome percentage upon anything that his father
might be induced to leave him by Mr. Medler's influence.

The discussion lasted for a long time; Mr. Medler pushing on, stage by
stage, in the favour of his secret client, anxious to see whether Jacob
Nowell might not be persuaded to allow his son's name to take the place
of his granddaughter, whom he had never seen, and who was really no more
than a stranger to him, the attorney took care to remind him. But on this
point the old man was immovable. He would leave his money to Marian, and
to no one else. He had no desire that his son should ever profit by the
labours and deprivations of all those joyless years in which his fortune
had been scraped together. It was only as the choice of the lesser evil