and in his lectures to Frank upon the sin of extravagance, the
squire always let out this foible,--"What was to become of the estate
if it fell into the hands of a spendthrift? No man should make ducks
and drakes of Hazeldean; let Frank beware of that," etc. Secondly, the
squire was not only fond of his lands, but he was jealous of them,--that
jealousy which even the tenderest fathers sometimes entertain towards
their natural heirs. He could not bear the notion that Frank should
count on his death; and he seldom closed an admonitory letter without
repeating the information that Hazeldean was not entailed; that it was
his to do with as he pleased through life and in death. Indirect menace
of this nature rather wounded and galled than intimidated Frank; for the
young man was extremely generous and high-spirited by nature, and was
always more disposed to some indiscretion after such warnings to his
self-interest, as if to show that those were the last kinds of appeal
likely to influence him. By the help of such insights into the character
of father and son, Randal thought he saw gleams of daylight illumining
his own chance to the lands of Hazeldean. Meanwhile, it appeared to him
obvious that, come what might of it, his own interests could not lose,
and might most probably gain, by whatever could alienate the squire
from his natural heir. Accordingly, though with consummate tact, he
instigated Frank towards the very excesses most calculated to irritate
the squire, all the while appearing rather to give the counter advice,
and never sharing in any of the follies to which he conducted
his thoughtless friend. In this he worked chiefly through others,
introducing Frank to every acquaintance most dangerous to youth, either
from the wit that laughs at prudence, or the spurious magnificence
that subsists so handsomely upon bills endorsed by friends of "great
expectations."

The minister and his protege were seated at breakfast, the first reading
the newspaper, the last glancing over his letters; for Randal had
arrived to the dignity of receiving many letters,--ay, and notes,
too, three-cornered and fantastically embossed. Egerton uttered an
exclamation, and laid down the newspaper. Randal looked up from his
correspondence. The minister had sunk into one of his absent reveries.

After a long silence, observing that Egerton did not return to the
newspaper, Randal said, "Ahem, sir, I have a note from Frank Hazeldean,
who wants much