that
I know no more of the share list than I do of Sanscrit, that I never
followed the rise and fall of the funds, and am as ignorant of what
influences the exchanges as I am of what affects the tides,--when I have
told you all this, you will, I am sure, see that any opinion of mine
must be utterly valueless."

"I don't exactly know, Mr. Bramleigh, that I'd have selected you if I
wanted a guide to a great speculation or a large investment; but the
business which has brought me down here is not of this nature. It is,
besides, a question as to which, in the common course of events, you
might be obliged to determine what line you would adopt. After your
father, you are the head of this family, and I think it is time you
should learn that you may be called upon tomorrow, or next day, to
defend your right, not only to your property, but to your name."

"For Heaven's sake, what do you mean?"

"Be calm, sir, and grant me a patient hearing, and you shall hear
the subject on which I have come to obtain your father's opinion; and
failing that, yours--for, as I have said, Mr. Bramleigh, a day or two
more may make the case one for your own decision. And now, without
entering into the history of the affair, I will simply say that an old
claim against your father's entailed estates has been recently revived,
and under circumstances of increased importance; that I have been, for
some time back, in negotiation to arrange this matter by a compromise,
and with every hope of success; but that the negotiations have been
unexpectedly broken off by the demands of the claimant,--demands so far
above all calculation, and, indeed, I may say above all fairness,--that
I have come over to ask whether your father will accede to them or
accept the issue of the law as to his right."

Augustus sat like one stunned by a heavy blow, not utterly unconscious,
but so much overcome and so confused that he could not venture to utter
a word.

"I see I have shocked you by my news, Mr. Bramleigh; but these are
things not to be told by halves."

"I know nothing of all this; I never so much as heard of it," gasped out
Augustus. "Tell me all that you know about it."

"That would be a somewhat long story," said the other, smiling; "but I
can, in a short space, tell you enough to put the main facts before you,
and enable you to see that the case is, with all its difficulties of
proof, a very weighty and serious one, and not to be dismissed, as your
father o