and wrote his name boldly to
the deed of relinquishment. Then Julius handed him a check for ten
thousand pounds, and went with him to the bank in order to facilitate
the transfer of the sum to Harry's credit. On the street, in the hot
sunshine, they stood a few minutes.

"You are quite satisfied, Harry?"

"You have saved me from despair. Perhaps you have saved Beatrice. I am
grateful to you."

"Have I done justly and honorably by you?"

"I believe you have."

"Then good-by. I must hasten home. Sophia will be anxious, and one never
knows what may happen."

"Julius, one moment. Tell my mother to pray for me. And the same word to
Charlotte. Poor Charley! Sophia"--

"Sophia pities you very much, Harry. Sophia feels as I do. We don't
expect people to cut their lives on a fifteenth-century pattern."

Then Harry lifted his hat, and walked away, with a shadow still of his
old military, up-head manner. And Julius looked after him with contempt,
and thought, "What a poor fellow he is! Not a word for himself, or a
plea for that wretched little heir in his cradle. There are some
miserable kinds of men in this world. I thank God I am not one of them!"

And the wretched Esau, with the ten thousand pounds in his pocket? Ah,
God only knew his agony, his shame, his longing, and despair! He felt
like an outcast. Yes, even when he clasped Beatrice in his arms, with
promises of unstinted comforts; when she kissed him, with tender words
and tears of joy,--he felt like an outcast.

CHAPTER X.

THE NEW SQUIRE.

"A word was brought,
Unto him,--the King himself desired his presence."

"The mystery of life
He probes; and in the battling din of things
That frets the feeble ear, he seeks and finds
A harmony that tunes the dissonant strife
To sweetest music."

This year the effort to keep Christmas in Seat-Sandal was a failure.
Julius did not return in time for the festival, and the squire was
unable to take any part in it. There had been one of those sudden,
mysterious changes in his condition, marking a point in life from which
every step is on the down-hill road to the grave. One day he had seemed
even better than usual; the next morning he looked many years older.
Lassitude of body and mind had seized the once eager, sympathetic man;
he was weary of the struggle for life, and had _given up_. This change
occurred just before Christmas; and Charlott