ich man.

Courted and flattered by those beneath him, Mark found his father's
precepts borne out by experience, and he quickly adopted his advice, and
entered with alacrity into all his money-getting speculations.

The handsome income allowed him by the Squire was never expended in the
pursuit of pleasures natural to his rank and age, but carefully
invested in the funds, whilst the young miser relied upon the generosity
of his mother to find him in clothes and pocket-money. When Mrs.
Hurdlestone remonstrated with him on his meanness, his father would
laugh and bid her hold her tongue.

"Let him alone, Lucy; the lad cannot help it; 'tis born in him. The
Hurdlestones are a money-making, money-loving race. Besides, what does
it matter? If he is saving a fortune at our expense, 'tis all in the
family. He knows how to take care of it better than we do. There will be
more for Algernon, you know!"

And this saying quieted the fond mother. "Yes," she repeated, "there
will be more for Algernon,--my handsome generous Algernon. Let his
sordid brother go on saving,--there will be more for Algernon."

These words, injudiciously spoken within the hearing of Mark
Hurdlestone, converted the small share of brotherly love, which hitherto
had existed between the brothers, into bitter hatred; and he secretly
settled in his own mind the distribution of his father's property.

And Algernon, the gay thoughtless favorite of his kind but imprudent
mother, was perfectly indifferent to the love or hatred of his elder
brother. He did not himself regard him with affection, and he expected
nothing from him, beyond the passive acquiescence in his welfare which
the ties of consanguinity generally give. If he did not seek in his twin
brother a friend and bosom-counsellor, he never imagined it possible
that he could act the part of an enemy. Possessing less talent than
Mark, he was generous, frank, and confiding. He loved society, in which
he was formed by nature to shine and become a general favorite. His
passion for amusement led him into extravagance and dissipation; and it
was apparent to all who knew him, best that he was more likely to spend
a fortune than acquire one.

Algernon had received, with his brother, a good classical education from
his uncle, a younger brother of his father's, who had been brought up
for the Church, and taken several degrees at Oxford, but had reduced
himself to comparative indigence by his imprudence and extravag