ll make game of me for being a mock squire! My father himself
knew that no man of spirit would stand such a humiliating
arrangement. If he could not trust me to succeed him, he did well
to arrange for me to go elsewhere. He said you would tell me what
provision he had made for me to do so."

The moment had come that the mother had so long dreaded. She had to
face the separation from her son, and to send him forth into the
world alone. But the experiences of the past weeks had taught her
that perhaps this was the best thing that could happen to young
Tom. In Gablethorpe he had no chance of getting away from evil
associates. In a different place he might find friends of a
different stamp.

She rose and silently unlocked a great oaken press, clamped with
iron, a place where the Squire kept all his valuable papers, and
some of the heirlooms which had come down to him from his
forefathers. Tom looked on with curious eyes. He had always
experienced, from childhood upwards, a certain sense of awe when
that press was unlocked and thrown open. He now observed his
mother's actions with great curiosity.

"Come, Tom, and lift down that box, for it is heavy," she said; and
Tom came forward and carefully lifted down a small iron-bound
chest, which, for its size, was in truth remarkably heavy. This box
was placed upon the table, whilst the mother locked up the safe
once more.

Then she selected a small key from a number in a bag at her girdle,
and offered it to her son.

"There, Tom, the box and its contents are yours. You will find
within five hundred golden pieces--guineas every one of them,
bright and new from the mint. Your father saved them up for you for
many long years, in case it should ever become needful that you
should leave home to see the world. Always it was his hope that you
would remain at home to be his comfort and stay; but if that could
not be, then would he wish to send forth his only son in such a
manner as beseemed his condition in life."

Tom's eyes sparkled. A flush mounted to his cheek, and his hand
shook a little as he put the key into the lock.

It was all true. There lay, in neat rolls, more money than he had
ever seen in all his life--a fortune for a prince, as it seemed to
him in his youthful inexperience. The admonitions and counsel of
his mother fell on deaf ears. Tom's busy brain was planning a
thousand ways in which his wealth might be expended. He would go
forth. He would see the world. He