“You’re proud; I’m practical.  I don’t expect you to do the same.  I’m up in London now to raise money to buy the farm—­Queen’s Anne’s Farm; it’s advertized for sale, I see.  Fleeting won’t sell it to me privately, because my name’s Blancove, and I’m the father of my son, and he fancies Algy’s the man.  Why? he saw Algy at the theatre in London with this girl of his;—­we were all young fellows once!—­and the rascal took Ned’s burden on his shoulders.  So, I shall have to compete with other buyers, and pay, I dare say, a couple of hundred extra for the property.  Do you believe what I tell you now?”

“Not a word of it,” said Sir William blandly.

The squire seized the decanter and drank in a fury.

“I had it from Algy.”

“That would all the less induce me to believe it.”

“H’m!” the squire frowned.  “Let me tell you—­he’s a dog—­but it’s a damned hard thing to hear one’s own flesh and blood abused.  Look here:  there’s a couple.  One of them has made a fool of a girl.  It can’t be my rascal—­stop a minute—­he isn’t the man, because she’d have been sure to have made a fool of him, that’s certain.  He’s a soft-hearted dog.  He’d aim at a cock-sparrow, and be glad if he missed.  There you have him.  He was one of your good boys.  I used to tell his poor mother, ’When you leave off thinking for him, he’ll go to the first handy villain—­and that’s the devil.’  And he’s done it.  But, here’s the difference.  He goes himself; he don’t send another.  I’ll tell you what:  if you don’t know about Mr. Ned’s tricks, you ought.  And you ought to make him marry the girl, and be off to New Zealand, or any of the upside-down places, where he might begin by farming, and soon, with his abilities, be cock o’ the walk.  He would, perhaps, be sending us a letter to say that he preferred to break away from the mother country and establish a republic.  He’s got the same political opinions as you.  Oh! he’ll do well enough over here; of course he will.  He’s the very fellow to do well.  Knock at him, he’s hard as nails, and ’ll stick anywhere.  You wouldn’t listen to me, when I told you about this at Fairly, where some old sweetheart of the girl mistook that poor devil of a scapegoat, Algy, for him, and went pegging at him like a madman.”

“No,” said Sir William; “No, I would not.  Nor do I now.  At least,” he struck out his right hand deprecatingly, “I listen.”

“Can you tell me what he was doing when he went to Italy?”

“He went partly at my suggestion.”

“Turns you round his little finger!  He went off with this girl:  wanted to educate her, or some nonsense of the sort.  That was Mr. Ned’s business.  Upon my soul, I’m sorry for old Fleming.  I’m told he takes it to heart.  It’s done him up.  Now, if it should turn out to be Ned, would you let him right the girl by marrying her?  You wouldn’t!”

“The principle of examining your hypothesis before you proceed to decide by it, is probably unknown to you,” Sir William observed, after bestowing a considerate smile on his brother, who muffled himself up from the chilling sententiousness, and drank.