There was nothing royal about Louis Philippe Scatcherd but his name.  He had now come to man’s estate, and his father, finding the Cambridge receipt to be inefficacious, had sent him abroad to travel with a tutor.  The doctor had from time to time heard tidings of this youth; he knew that he had already shown symptoms of his father’s vices, but no symptoms of his father’s talents; he knew that he had begun life by being dissipated, without being generous; and that at the age of twenty-one he had already suffered from delirium tremens.

It was on this account that he had expressed disapprobation, rather than surprise, when he heard that his father intended to bequeath the bulk of his large fortune to the uncontrolled will of this unfortunate boy.

’I have toiled for my money hard, and I have a right to do as I like with it.  What other satisfaction can it give me?’

The doctor assured him that he did not at all mean to dispute this.

‘Louis Philippe will do well enough, you’ll find,’ continued the baronet, understanding what was passing within his companion’s breast.  ’Let a young fellow sow his wild oats while he is young, and he’ll be steady enough when he grows old.’

‘But what if he never lives to get through the sowing?’ thought the doctor to himself.  ’What if the wild-oats operation is carried on in so violent a manner as to leave no strength in the soil for the product of a more valuable crop?’ It was of no use saying this, however, so he allowed Scatcherd to continue.

’If I’d had a free fling when I was a youngster, I shouldn’t have been so fond of the brandy bottle now.  But any way, my son shall be my heir.  I’ve had the gumption to make the money, but I haven’t the gumption to spend it.  My son, however, shall be able to ruffle it with the best of them.  I’ll go bail he shall hold his head higher than ever young Gresham will be able to hold his.  They are much of the same age, as well I have cause to remember;—­and so has her ladyship here.’

Now the fact was, that Sir Roger Scatcherd felt in his heart no special love for young Gresham; but with her ladyship it might almost be a question whether she did not love the youth whom she had nursed almost as well as that other one who was her own proper offspring.

’And will you not put any check on thoughtless expenditure?  If you live ten or twenty years, as we hope you may, it will become unnecessary; but in making a will, a man should always remember he may go off suddenly.’

’Especially if he goes to bed with a brandy bottle under his head; eh, doctor?  But, mind, that’s a medical secret, you know; not a word of that out of the bedroom.’

Dr Thorne could but sigh.  What could he say on such a subject to such a man as this?

’Yes, I have put a check on his expenditure.  I will not let his daily bread depend on any man; I have therefore let him five hundred a year at his own disposal, from the day of my death.  Let him make what ducks and drakes of that he can.’