Frank's debts were not in reality large; and when he named the half of
them, looking down in shame, the squire, agreeably surprised, was about
to express himself with a liberal heartiness that would have opened his
son's excellent heart at once to him.

But a warning look from Randal checked the impulse; and the squire
thought it right, as he had promised, to affect an anger he did not feel,
and let fall the unlucky threat, "that it was all very well once in a way
to exceed his allowance; but if Frank did not, in future, show more sense
than to be led away by a set of London sharks and coxcombs, he must cut
the army, come home, and take to farming."

Frank imprudently exclaimed, "Oh, sir, I have no taste for farming. And
after London, at my age, the country would be so horribly dull."

"Aha!" said the squire, very grimly--and he thrust back into his pocket-
book some extra bank-notes which his fingers had itched to add to those
he had already counted out. "The country is terribly dull, is it? Money
goes there not upon follies and vices, but upon employing honest
labourers, and increasing the wealth of the nation. It does not please
you to spend money in that way: it is a pity you should ever be plagued
with such duties."

"My dear father--"

"Hold your tongue, you puppy. Oh, I dare say, if you were in my shoes,
you would cut down the oaks, and mortgage the property; sell it, for what
I know,--all go on a cast of the dice! Aha, sir--very well, very well--
the country is horribly dull, is it? Pray stay in town."