“The property will come to ruin.”

“Not if you will take the matter up in the proper spirit.  But if you determine to drive one brother to hostility against the other, and promote unnecessary litigation, of course the lawyers will get it all.”  Then Mr. Grey left the room, boiling with anger in that he, with his legal knowledge and determination to do right, had been so utterly thrown aside; while Mr. Scarborough sank exhausted by the effort he had gone through.

CHAPTER LV.

MR. GREY’S REMORSE.

Mr. Grey’s feeling, as he returned home, was chiefly one of self-reproach; so that, though he persisted in not believing the story which had been told to him, he did, in truth, believe it.  He believed, at any rate, in Mr. Scarborough.  Mr. Scarborough had determined that the property should go hither and thither according to his will, without reference to the established laws of the land, and had carried, and would carry his purpose.  His object had been to save his estate from the hands of those harpies, the money-lenders; and as far as he was concerned he would have saved it.

He had, in fact, forced the money-lenders to lend their money without interest and without security, and then to consent to accept their principal when it was offered to them.  No one could say but that the deed when done was a good deed.  But this man in doing it had driven his coach and horses through all the laws, which were to Mr. Grey as Holy Writ; and, in thus driving his coach and horses, he had forced Mr. Grey to sit upon the box and hold the reins.  Mr. Grey had thought himself to be a clever man,—­at least a well-instructed man; but Mr. Scarborough had turned him round his finger, this way and that way, just as he had pleased.

Mr. Grey when, in his rage, he had given the lie to Mr. Scarborough had, no doubt, spoken as he had believed at that moment.  To him the new story must have sounded like a lie, as he had been driven to accept the veritable lie as real truth.  He had looked into all the circumstances of the marriage at Nice, and had accepted it.  He had sent his partner over, and had picked up many incidental confirmations.  That there had been a marriage at Nice between Mr. Scarborough and the mother of Augustus was certain.  He had traced back Mr. Scarborough’s movements before the marriage, and could not learn where the lady had joined him who afterward became his wife; but it had become manifest to him that she had travelled with him, bearing his name.  But in Vienna Mr. Barry had learned that Mr. Scarborough had called the lady by her maiden name.  He might have learned that he had done so very often at other places; but it had all been done in preparation for the plot in hand,—­as had scores of other little tricks which have not cropped up to the surface in this narrative.