s claim is well founded and this demand a just
one, I will not contest it.' He added--'I am not afraid of poverty, but
a public shame and a scandal would be my death.'"

"Just what I should expect from him. What did Sedley say?"

"He did n't say he was exactly a fool, but something very like it;
and he told him, too, that though he might make very light of his own
rights, he could not presume to barter away those of others; and, last
of all, he added, what he knew would have its weight with Augustus,
that, had his father lived he meant to have compromised this claim. Not
that he regarded it either as well founded or formidable, but simply as
a means of avoiding a very unpleasant publicity. This last intimation
had its effect, and Augustus permitted Sedley to treat. Sedley at once
addressed himself to Temple--Jack was not to be found--and to Lord
Culduff, to learn what share they were disposed to take in such an
arrangement. As Augustus offered to bind himself never to marry, and
to make a will dividing the estate equally amongst his brothers and
sisters, Lord Culduff and Temple quite approved of this determination,
but held that they were not called upon to take any portion of the
burden of the compromise.

"Augustus would seem to have been so indignant at this conduct, that
he wrote to Sedley to put him at once in direct communication with
the claimant. Sedley saw by the terms of the letter how much of it was
dictated by passion and offended pride, evaded the demand, and pretended
that an arrangement was actually pending, and, if uninterfered with,
sure to be completed. To this Augustus replied--for Nelly has sent me
a copy of his very words--'Be it so. Make such a settlement as you, in
your capacity of my lawyer, deem best for my interests. For my own
part, I will not live in a house, nor receive the rents of an estate, my
rights to which the law may possibly decide against me. Till, then,
the matter be determined either way, I and my sister Eleanor, who is
like-minded with me in this affair, will go where we can live at least
cost, decided, as soon as may be, to have this issue determined, and
Castello become the possession of him who rightfully owns it.'

"On the evening of the day he wrote this they left Castello. They only
stopped a night in Dublin, and left next morning for the Continent.
Nelly's letter is dated from Ostend. She says she does not know where
they are going, and is averse to anything like import