"On your father"s authority, backed by your signature, I imagine that I can do so. But I will not answer as a certainty. The best thing would be to sell a portion of the property. If you and your father will join, and Mountjoy also with you, it may be done."
"What has Mountjoy got to do with it?" asked the father.
"You had better have Mountjoy also. There may be some doubt as to the t.i.tle. People will think so after the tricks that have been played."
This was said by the lawyer; but the squire only laughed. He always showed some enjoyment of the fun which arose from the effects of his own scheming. The legal world, with its entails, had endeavored to dispose of his property, but he had shown the legal world that it was not an easy task to dispose of anything in which he was concerned.
"How will you get hold of Mountjoy?" asked Augustus. Then the two older men only looked at each other. Both of them believed that Augustus knew more about his brother than any one else. "I think you had better send to Mr. Annesley and ask him."
"What does Annesley know about him?" asked the squire.
"He was the last person who saw him, at any rate, in London."
"Are you sure of that?" said Mr. Grey.
"I think I may say that I am. I think, at any rate, that I know that there was a violent quarrel between them in the streets,--a quarrel in which the two men proceeded to blows,--and that Annesley struck him in such a way as to leave him for dead upon the pavement. Then the young man walked away, and Mountjoy has not been heard of, or, at least, has not been seen since. That a man should have struck such a blow, and then, on the spur of the moment, thinking of his own safety, should have left his opponent, I can understand. I should not like to be accused of such treatment myself, but I can understand it. I cannot understand that the man should have been missing altogether, and that then he should have held his tongue."
"How do you know all this?" asked the attorney.
"It is sufficient that I do know it."
"I don"t believe a word of it," said the squire.
"Coming from you, of course I must put up with any contradiction," said Augustus. "I should not bear it from any one else," and he looked at the attorney.
"One has a right to ask for your authority," said his father.
"I cannot give it. A lady is concerned whose name I shall not mention.
But it is of less importance, as his own friends are acquainted with the nature of his conduct. Indeed, it seems odd to see you two gentlemen so ignorant as to the matter which has been a subject of common conversation in most circles. His uncle means to cut him out from the property."
"Can he too deal with entails?" said the squire.
"He is still in middle life, and he can marry. That is what he intended to do, so much is he disgusted with his nephew. He has already stopped the young man"s allowance, and swears that he shall not have a shilling of his money if he can help it. The police for some time were in great doubt whether they would not arrest him. I think I am justified in saying that he is a thorough reprobate."
"You are not at all justified," said the father.
"I can only express my opinion, and am glad to say that the world agrees with me."
"It is sickening, absolutely sickening," said the squire, turning to the attorney. "You would not believe, now--"
But he stopped himself. "What would not Mr. Grey believe?" asked the son.
"There is no one one knows better than you that after the row in the street,--when Mountjoy was, I believe, the aggressor,--he was again seen by another person. I hate such deceit and scheming." Here Augustus smiled. "What are you sn.i.g.g.e.ring there at, you blockhead?"
"Your hatred, sir, at deceit and scheming. The truth is that when a man plays a game well, he does not like to find that he has any equal.
Heaven forbid that I should say that there is rivalry here. You, sir, are so pre-eminently the first that no one can touch you." Then he laughed long,--a low, bitter, inaudible laugh,--during which Mr. Grey sat silent.
"This comes well from you!" said the father.
"Well, sir, you would try your hand upon me. I have pa.s.sed over all that you have done on my behalf. But when you come to abuse me I cannot quite take your words as calmly as though there had been--no, shall I say, antecedents? Now about this money. Are we to pay it?"
"I don"t care one straw about the money. What is it to me? I don"t owe these creditors anything."
"Nor do I."
"Let them rest, then, and do the worst they can. But upon the whole, Mr.
Grey," he added, after a pause, "I think we had better pay them. They have endeavored to be insolent to me, and I have therefore ignored their claim. I have told them to do their worst. If my son here will agree with you in raising the money, and if Mountjoy,--as he, too, is necessary,--will do so, I too will do what is required of me. If eighty thousand pounds will settle it all, there ought not to be any difficulty. You can inquire what the real amount would be. If they choose to hold to their bonds, nothing will come of it;--that"s all."
"Very well, Mr. Scarborough. Then I shall know how to proceed. I understand that Mr. Scarborough, junior, is an a.s.senting party?" Mr.
Scarborough, junior, signified his a.s.sent by nodding his head.
"That will do, then, for I think that I have a little exhausted myself."
Then he turned round upon his couch, as though he intended to slumber.
Mr. Grey left the room, and Augustus followed him, but not a word was spoken between them. Mr. Grey had an early dinner and went up to London by an evening train. What became of Augustus he did not inquire, but simply asked for his dinner and for a conveyance to the train. These were forthcoming, and he returned that night to Fulham.
"Well?" said Dolly, as soon as she had got him his slippers and made him his tea.
"I wish with all my heart I had never seen any one of the name of Scarborough!"
"That is of course;--but what have you done?"
"The father has been a great knave. He has set the laws of his country at defiance, and should be punished most severely. And Mountjoy Scarborough has proved himself to be unfit to have any money in his hands. A man so reckless is little better than a lunatic. But compared with Augustus they are both estimable, amiable men. The father has ideas of philanthropy, and Mountjoy is simply mad. But Augustus is as dishonest as either of them, and is odious also all round." Then at length he explained all that he had learned, and all that he had advised, and at last went to bed combating Dolly"s idea that the Scarboroughs ought now to be thrown over altogether.
CHAPTER XXI.
MR. SCARBOROUGH"S THOUGHTS OF HIMSELF.
When Mr. Scarborough was left alone he did not go to sleep, as he had pretended, but lay there for an hour, thinking of his position and indulging to the full the feelings of anger which he now entertained toward his second son. He had never, in truth, loved Augustus. Augustus was very like his father in his capacity for organizing deceit, for plotting, and so contriving that his own will should be in opposition to the wills of all those around him. But they were thoroughly unlike in the object to be attained. Mr. Scarborough was not a selfish man.
Augustus was selfish and nothing else. Mr. Scarborough hated the law,--because it was the law and endeavored to put a restraint upon him and others. Augustus liked the law,--unless when in particular points it interfered with his own actions. Mr. Scarborough thought that he could do better than the law. Augustus wished to do worse. Mr. Scarborough never blushed at what he himself attempted, unless he failed, which was not often the case. But he was constantly driven to blush for his son.
Augustus blushed for nothing and for n.o.body. When Mr. Scarborough had declared to the attorney that just praise was due to Augustus for the n.o.bility of the sacrifice he was making, Augustus had understood his father accurately and determined to be revenged, not because of the expression of his father"s thoughts, but because he had so expressed himself before the attorney. Mr. Scarborough also thought that he was ent.i.tled to his revenge.
When he had been left alone for an hour he rung the bell, which was close at his side, and called for Mr. Merton. "Where is Mr. Grey?"
"I think he has ordered the wagonette to take him to the station."
"And where is Augustus?"
"I do not know."
"And Mr. Jones? I suppose they have not gone to the station. Just feel my pulse, Merton. I am afraid I am very weak." Mr. Merton felt his pulse and shook his head. "There isn"t a pulse, so to speak."
"Oh yes; but it is irregular. If you will exert yourself so violently--"
"That is all very well; but a man has to exert himself sometimes, let the penalty be what it may. When do you think that Sir William will have to come again?" Sir William, when he came, would come with his knife, and his advent was always to be feared.