“I will meddle no farther with anything in which the name of Scarborough is concerned.”  Such had been Mr. Grey’s first assertion when he received Mountjoy’s letter.  He would write to him and tell him that, after what had passed, there could be nothing of business transacted between him and his father’s estate.  Nor was he in the position to give any advice on the subjects mooted.  He would wash his hands of it altogether.  But, as he went home, he thought over the matter and told himself that it would be impossible for him thus to repudiate the name.  He would undertake no lawsuit either on behalf of Augustus or of Mountjoy.  But he must answer Mountjoy’s letter, and tender him some advice.

During the long hours of the subsequent night he discussed the whole matter with his daughter, and the upshot of his discussion was this:—­that he would withdraw his name from the business, and leave Mr. Barry to manage it.  Mr. Barry might then act for either party as he pleased.

CHAPTER LVI.

SCARBOROUGH’S REVENGE.

All these things were not done at Tretton altogether unknown to Augustus Scarborough.  Tidings as to the will reached him, and then he first perceived the injury he had done himself in lending his assistance to the payment of the creditors.  Had his brother been utterly bankrupt, so that the Jews might have seized any money that might have come to him, his father would have left no will in his favor.  All that was now intelligible to Augustus.  The idea that his father should strip the house of every stick of furniture, and the estate of every chattel upon it, had not occurred to him before the thing was done.

He had thought that his father was indifferent to all personal offence, and therefore he had been offensive.  He found out his mistake, and therefore was angry with himself.  But he still thought that he had been right in regard to the creditors.  Had the creditors been left in the possession of their unpaid bonds, they would have offered terrible impediments to the taking possession of the property.  He had been right then, he thought.  The fact was that his father had lived too long.  However, the property would be left to him, Augustus, and he must make up his mind to buy the other things from Mountjoy.  He at any rate would have to provide the funds out of which Mountjoy must live, and he would take care that he did not buy the chattels twice over.  It was thus he consoled himself till rumors of something worse reached his ears.

How the rumors reached him it would be difficult to say.  There were probably some among the servants who got an inkling of what the squire was doing when Mr. Grey again came down; or Miss Scarborough had some confidential friend; or Mr. Grey’s clerk may have been indiscreet.  The tidings in some unformed state did reach Augustus and astounded him.  His belief in his father’s story as to his brother’s