“No!” shouted Dolly.

“I heard of a rich American the other day who had been poor, and was asked how he had suddenly become so well off.  ‘I found a partner,’ said the American, ’and we went into business together.  He had the capital and I had the experience.  We just made a change.  He has the experience now and I have the capital.’  When I knew that story I went to strip his coat off the wretch’s back; but Mr. Barry would give him a fine fur cloak as a mark of respect.  When I find that clever rascals are respectable, I think it is time that I should give up work altogether.”

Thus it was that Mr. Grey left the house of Grey & Barry, driven to premature retirement by the vices, or rather frauds, of old Mr. Scarborough.  When Augustus went to work, which he did immediately on his father’s death, to wrest the property from the hands of his brother,—­or what part of the property might be possible,—­Mr. Grey absolutely declined to have anything to do with the case.  Mr. Barry explained how impossible it was that the house, even for its own sake, should absolutely secede from all consideration of the question.  Mountjoy had been left in possession, and, according to all the evidence now before them, was the true owner.  Of course he would want a lawyer, and, as Mr. Barry said, would be very well able to pay for what he wanted.  It was necessary that the firm should protect themselves against the vindictiveness of Mr. Tyrrwhit and Samuel Hart.  Should the firm fail to do so, it would leave itself open to all manner of evil calumnies.  The firm had been so long employed on behalf of the Scarboroughs that now, when the old squire was dead, it could not afford to relinquish the business till this final great question had been settled.  It was necessary, as Mr. Barry said, that they should see it out, Mr. Barry taking a much more leading part in these discussions than had been his wont.  Consequently Mr. Grey had told him that he might do it himself, and Mr. Barry had been quite contented.  Mr. Barry, in talking the matter over with one of the clerks, whom he afterward took into partnership, expressed his opinion that “poor old Grey was altogether off the hooks.”  “Old Grey” had always been Mr. Grey when spoken of by Mr. Barry till that day, and the clerk remarking this, left Mr. Grey’s bell unanswered for three or four minutes.  Mr. Grey, though he was quite willing to shelf himself, understood it all, and knocked them about in the chambers that afternoon with unwonted severity.  He said nothing about it when he came home that evening:  but the next day was the last on which he took his accustomed chair.

“What will you do with yourself, papa?” Dolly said to him the next morning.

“Do with myself?”

“What employment will you take in hand?  One has to think of that, and to live accordingly.  If you would like to turn farmer, we must live in the country.”

“Certainly I shall not do that.  I need not absolutely throw away what money I have saved.”