“No;—­you at least will be left to me.  But the fact is, I cannot have any farther dealings with the affairs of Mr. Scarborough.  The old man who is dead was too many for me.  Though I call him old, he was ever so much younger than I am.  Barry says he was the best lawyer he ever knew.  As things go now a man has to be accounted a fool if he attempts to run straight.  Barry does not tell me that I have been a fool, but he clearly thinks so.”

“Do you care what Mr. Barry thinks or says?”

“Yes, I do,—­in regard to the professional position which I hold.  He is confident that Mountjoy Scarborough is his father’s eldest legitimate son, and he believes that the old squire simply was anxious to supersede him to get some cheap arrangement made as to his debts.”

“I supposed that was the case before.”

“But what am I to think of such a man?  Mr. Barry speaks of him almost with affection.  How am I to get on with such a man as Mr. Barry?”

“He himself is honest.”

“Well;—­yes, I believe so.  But he does not hate the absolute utter roguery of our own client.  And that is not quite all.  When the story of the Rummelsburg marriage was told I did not believe one word of it, and I said so most strongly.  I did not at first believe the story that there had been no such marriage, and I swore to Mr. Scarborough that I would protect Mountjoy and Mountjoy’s creditors against any such scheme as that which was intended.  Then I was convinced.  All the details of the Nice marriage were laid before me.  It was manifest that the lady had submitted to be married in a public manner and with all regular forms, while she had a baby, as it were, in her arms.  And I got all the dates.  Taking that marriage for granted, Mountjoy was clearly illegitimate, and I was driven so to confess.  Then I took up arms on behalf of Augustus.  Augustus was a thoroughly bad fellow,—­a bully and a tyrant; but he was the eldest son.  Then came the question of paying the debts.  I thought it a very good thing that the debts should be payed in the proposed fashion.  The men were all to get the money they had actually lent, and no better arrangement seemed to be probable.  I helped in that, feeling that it was all right.  But it was a swindle that I was made to assist in.  Of course it was a swindle, if the Rummelsburg marriage be true, and all these creditors think that I have been a party to it.  Then I swore that I wouldn’t believe the Rummelsburg marriage.  But Barry and the rest of them only shake their heads and laugh, and I am told that Mr. Scarborough was the best lawyer among us!”

“What does it matter?  How can that hurt you?” asked Dolly.

“It does hurt me;—­that is the truth.  I have been at my business long enough.  Another system has grown up which does not suit me.  I feel that they all can put their fingers in my eyes.  It may be that I am a fool, and that my idea of honesty is a mistake.”