riles you. I know you're a fellow of your college, and
have other things to think of besides the vagaries of a fox."

"The fellow of a college!" said Harry, who, had he been in a good-humor,
would have thought much more of being along with a lot of fox-hunters
than of any college honors.

"Well, yes; I suppose it is a great thing to be a fellow of a college. I
never could have been one if I had mugged forever."

"My being a fellow of a college won't do me much good. Did you see that
old man Proctor go by just now?"

"Oh yes; he never likes to be out after a certain hour."

"And did you see Florin, and Mr. Harkaway, and a lot of others? You
yourself have been going on ahead for the last hour without speaking to
me."

"How do you mean without speaking to you?" said Joshua, turning sharp
round.

Then Harry Annesley reflected that he was doing an injustice to his
future brother-in-law.

"Perhaps I have done you wrong," he said.

"You have."

"I beg your pardon. I believe you are as honest and true a fellow as
there is in Hertfordshire, but for those others--"

"You think it's about Mountjoy Scarborough, then?" asked Joshua.

"I do. That infernal fool, Peter Prosper, has chosen to publish to the
world that he has dropped me because of something that he has heard of
that occurrence. A wretched lie has been told with a purpose by
Mountjoy Scarborough's brother, and my uncle has taken it into his wise
head to believe it. The truth is, I have not been as respectful to him
as he thinks I ought, and now he resents my neglect in this fashion. He
is going to marry your aunt in order that he may have a lot of children,
and cut me out. In order to justify himself, he has told these lies
about me, and you see the consequence;--not a man in the county is
willing to speak to me."

"I really think a great deal of it's fancy."

"You go and ask Mr. Harkaway. He's honest, and he'll tell you. Ask this
new cousin of yours, Mr. Prosper."

"I don't know that they are going to make a match of it, after all."

"Ask my own father. Only think of it,--that a puling, puking idiot like
that, from a mere freak, should be able to do a man such a mischief! He
can rob me of my income, which he himself has brought me up to expect.
That he can do by a stroke of his pen. He can threaten to have sons like
Priam. All that is within his own bosom. But to justify himself to the
world at large, he picks up a scandalous story from a man like Aug