ned to you, and you will be willing to listen
to me. I may take my turn in talking a little about myself?"

"I am under the deepest obligation to you, Mr. Farebrother," said Fred,
in a state of uncomfortable surmise.

"I will not affect to deny that you are under some obligation to me.
But I am going to confess to you, Fred, that I have been tempted to
reverse all that by keeping silence with you just now. When somebody
said to me, 'Young Vincy has taken to being at the billiard-table every
night again--he won't bear the curb long;' I was tempted to do the
opposite of what I am doing--to hold my tongue and wait while you went
down the ladder again, betting first and then--"

"I have not made any bets," said Fred, hastily.

"Glad to hear it. But I say, my prompting was to look on and see you
take the wrong turning, wear out Garth's patience, and lose the best
opportunity of your life--the opportunity which you made some rather
difficult effort to secure. You can guess the feeling which raised
that temptation in me--I am sure you know it. I am sure you know that
the satisfaction of your affections stands in the way of mine."

There was a pause. Mr. Farebrother seemed to wait for a recognition of
the fact; and the emotion perceptible in the tones of his fine voice
gave solemnity to his words. But no feeling could quell Fred's alarm.

"I could not be expected to give her up," he said, after a moment's
hesitation: it was not a case for any pretence of generosity.

"Clearly not, when her affection met yours. But relations of this
sort, even when they are of long standing, are always liable to change.
I can easily conceive that you might act in a way to loosen the tie she
feels towards you--it must be remembered that she is only conditionally
bound to you--and that in that case, another man, who may flatter
himself that he has a hold on her regard, might succeed in winning that
firm place in her love as well as respect which you had let slip. I
can easily conceive such a result," repeated Mr. Farebrother,
emphatically. "There is a companionship of ready sympathy, which might
get the advantage even over the longest associations." It seemed to
Fred that if Mr. Farebrother had had a beak and talons instead of his
very capable tongue, his mode of attack could hardly be more cruel. He
had a horrible conviction that behind all this hypothetic statement
there was a knowledge of some actual change in Mary's feeling.