and meant to do the best he could for his son Augustus. The other son
was past all hope. He was hardly angry with his eldest son, who had
undoubtedly given him cause for just anger. His apparent motives in
telling the truth about him at last were rather those of defrauding the
Jews, who had expressed themselves to him with brutal audacity, than
that of punishing the one son or doing justice to the other; but even of
them he spoke with a cynical good-humor, triumphing in his idea of
thoroughly getting the better of them.

"I am consoled, Mr. Grey," he said, "when I think how probably it might
all have been discovered after my death. I should have destroyed all
these," and he laid his hands upon the papers, "but still there might
have been discovery."

Mr. Grey could not but think that during the last twenty-four years,--the
period which had elapsed since the birth of the younger son,--no idea of
such a truth had occurred to himself.

He did at last consent to take the papers in his hands, and to read them
through with care. He took them away with that promise, and with an
assurance that he would bring them back on the day but one
following--should Mr. Scarborough then be alive.

Mr. Scarborough, who seemed at that moment to have much life in him,
insisted on this proviso:--

"The surgeon is to be here to-morrow, you know, and his coming may mean
a great deal. You will have the papers, which are quite clear, and will
know what to do. I shall see Mountjoy myself this evening. I suppose he
will have the grace to come, as he does not know what he is coming for."