satisfaction,--satisfaction that the money-lenders should be done out of
their money; that a professed gambler like Captain Scarborough should
suddenly become an illegitimate nobody; and, more interesting still,
that a very wealthy and well-conditioned, if not actually respectable,
squire should have proved himself to be a most brazen-faced rascal. All
of these were matters which gave extreme delight to the world at large.
At first there came little paragraphs without any name, and then, some
hours afterward, the names became known to the quidnuncs, and in a short
space of time were in possession of the very gentry who found themselves
defrauded in this singular manner.

It is not necessary here that I should recapitulate all the
circumstances of the original fraud, for a gross fraud had been
perpetrated. After the perpetration of that fraud papers had been
prepared by Mr. Scarborough himself with a great deal of ingenuity, and
the matter had been so arranged that,--but for his own declaration,--his
eldest son would undoubtedly have inherited the property. Now there was
no measure to the clamor and the uproar raised by the money-lenders. Mr.
Grey's outer office was besieged, but his clerk simply stated that the
facts would be proved on Mr. Scarborough's death as clearly as it might
be possible to prove them. The curses uttered against the old squire
were bitter and deep, but during this time he was still supposed to be
lying at death's door, and did not, in truth, himself expect to live
many days. The creditors, of course, believed that the story was a
fiction. None of them were enabled to see Captain Scarborough, who,
after a short period, disappeared altogether from the scene. But they
were, one and all, convinced that the matter had been arranged between
him and his father.

There was one from whom better things were expected than to advance