But he did not on that account hate cards.  There was no reason why Mountjoy should not become to him as pleasant a companion as ever for the few days that might be left to him, if only he would come.  But, when asked, he refused to come.  When the squire received the letter above given he was not in the least angry with his son, but simply determined, if possible, that he should be brought to Tretton.  Mountjoy’s debts would now be paid, and something, if possible, should be done for him.  He was so angry with Augustus that he would, if possible, revoke his last decision;—­but that, alas! would be impossible.

Sir William Brodrick had, when he last saw him, expressed some hope,—­not of his recovery, which was by all admitted to be impossible,—­but of his continuance in the land of the living for another three months, or perhaps six, as Sir William had finally suggested, opening out, as he himself seemed to think, indefinite hope.  “The most wonderful constitution, Mr. Scarborough, I ever saw in my life.  I’ve never known a dog even so cut about, and yet bear it.”  Mr. Scarborough bowed and smiled, and accepted the compliment.  He would have taken the hat off his head, had it been his practice to wear a hat in his sitting-room.  Mr. Merton had gone farther.  Of course he did not mean, he said, to set up his opinion against Sir William’s; but if Mr. Scarborough would live strictly by rule, Mr. Merton did not see why either three months or six should be the end of it.  Mr. Scarborough had replied that he could not undertake to live precisely by rule, and Mr. Merton had shaken his head.  But from that time forth Mr. Scarborough did endeavor to obey the injunctions given to him.  He had something worth doing in the six months now offered to him.

He had heard lately very much of the story of Harry Annesley, and had expressed great anger at the ill-usage to which that young man had been subjected.  It had come to his ears that it was intended that Harry should lose the property he had expected, and that he had already lost his immediate income.  This had come to him through Mr. Merton, between whom and Augustus Scarborough there was no close friendship.  And the squire understood that Florence Mountjoy had been the cause of Harry’s misfortune.  He himself recognized it as a fact that his son Mountjoy was unfit to marry any young lady.  Starvation would assuredly stare such young lady in the face.  But not the less was he acerbated and disgusted at the idea that Augustus should endeavor to take the young lady to himself.  “What!” he had exclaimed to Mr. Merton; “he wants both the property and the girl.  There is nothing on earth that he does not want.  The greater the impropriety in his craving, the stronger the craving.”  Then he picked up by degrees all the details of the midnight feud between Harry and Mountjoy, and set himself to work to undermine Augustus.  But he had steadily carried out the plan for settling with the creditors, and, with the aid of Mr. Grey, had, as he thought, already concluded that business.  Conjunction with Augustus had been necessary, but that had been obtained.