“Not in the least.”

“It’s very kind of you, I am sure, to look after our poor concerns with so much interest.  Jones, don’t you think it is time they gave us some dinner?  Mr. Grey, I’m sure, must want his dinner.”

“All in good time,” said the lawyer.

“You shall have your dinner, Mr. Grey.  It is the least we can do for you.”  Mr. Grey felt that in every sound of his voice there was an insult, and took special notice of every tone, and booked them all down in his memory.  After dinner he asked some unimportant question with reference to the meeting that was to take place in the morning, and was at once rebuked.  “I do not know that we need trouble our friend here with our private concerns,” he said.

“Not in the least,” said Mr. Grey.  “You have already been talking about them in my presence and in his.  It is necessary that I should have a list of the creditors before I can advise your father.”

“I don’t see it; but, however, that is for you to judge.  Indeed, I do not know on what points my father wants your advice.  A lawyer generally furnishes such a list.”  Then Mr. Grey took up a book, and was soon left alone by the younger men.

In the morning he walked out in the park, so as to have free time for thought.  Not a word farther had been said between him and Augustus touching their affairs.  At breakfast Augustus discussed with his friend the state of the odds respecting some race and then the characters of certain ladies.  No subjects could have been less interesting to Mr. Grey, as Augustus was aware.  They breakfasted at ten, and twelve had been named for the meeting.  Mr. Grey had an hour or an hour and a half for his walk, in which he could again turn over in his mind all these matters of which his thoughts had been full for now many a day.

Of two or three facts he was certain.  Augustus was the legitimate heir of his father.  Of that he had seen ample documentary evidence.  The word of no Scarborough should go for anything with him;—­but of that fact he was assured.  Whether the squire knew aught of Mountjoy he did not feel sure, but that Augustus did he was quite certain.  Who was paying the bills for the scapegrace during his travels he could not say, but he thought it probable that Augustus was finding the money.  He, Mountjoy, was kept away, so as to be out of the creditors’ way.

He thought, therefore, that Augustus was doing this, so that he might the more easily buy up the debts.  But why should Augustus go to the expense of buying up the debts, seeing that the money must ultimately come out of his own pocket?  Because,—­so Mr. Grey thought,—­Augustus would not trust his own father.  The creditors, if they could get hold of Mountjoy when his father was dead, and when the bonds would all become payable, might possibly so unravel the facts as to make it apparent that, after all, the property was Mountjoy’s.  This was not Mr. Grey’s idea, but was Mr. Grey’s