gone to his grave with all the dignity of a steady Christian father! Of
the two men I prefer myself; but I know that I have been a liar."

What was Harry Annesley to say in answer to such an address as this?
There was the man, stretched on his bed before him, haggard, unshaved,
pale, and grizzly, with a fire in his eyes, but weakness in his
voice,--bold, defiant, self-satisfied, and yet not selfish. He had lived
through his life with the one strong resolution of setting the law at
defiance in reference to the distribution of his property; but chiefly
because he had thought the law to be unjust. Then, when the accident of
his eldest son's extravagance had fallen upon him, he had endeavored to
save his second son, and had thought, without the slightest remorse, of
the loss which was to fall on the creditors. He had done all this in
such a manner that, as far as Harry knew, the law could not touch him,
though all the world was aware of his iniquity. And now he lay boasting
of what he had done. It was necessary that Harry should say something as
he rose from his seat, and he lamely expressed a wish that Mr.
Scarborough might quickly recover. "No, my dear fellow," said the
squire; "men do not recover when they are brought to such straits as I
am in. Nor do I wish it. Were I to live, Augustus would feel the second
injustice to be quite intolerable. His mind is lost in amazement at what
I had contemplated. And he feels that the matter can only be set right
between him and fortune by my dying at once. If he were to understand
that I were to live ten years longer, I think that he would either
commit a murder or lose his senses."

"But there is enough for both of you," said Harry.

"There is no such word in the language as enough. An estate can have but
one owner, and Augustus is anxious to be owner here. I do not blame him