might differ about what
was honourable or what was false. At all events, he was under our roof
here, and if those nobs--or swells, I believe you call them--were like to
be of use to any of us, we, the people that were entertaining them, were
the first to be thought of; but your pleasant friend thought differently,
and made such good use of his time that he cut you out altogether, Dick--he
left you nowhere.'

'Really, sir, it never occurred to me till now to take that view of the
situation.'

'Well, take that view of it now, and see how you'll like it! _You_ have
your way to work in life as well as Mr. Atlee. From all I can judge, you're
scarcely as well calculated to do it as he is. You have not his smartness,
you have not his brains, and you have not his impudence--and, 'faith, I'm
much mistaken but it's the best of the three!'

'I don't perceive, sir, that we are necessarily pitted against each other
at all.'

'Don't you? Well, so much the worse for you if you don't see that every
fellow that has nothing in the world is the rival of every other fellow
that's in the same plight. For every one that swims, ten, at least, sink.'

'Perhaps, sir, to begin, I never fully realised the first condition. I was
not exactly aware that I was without anything in the world.'

'I'm coming to that, if you'll have a little patience. Here is a letter
from Tom McKeown, of Abbey Street. I wrote to him about raising a few
hundreds on mortgage, to clear off some of our debts, and have a trifle in
hand for drainage and to buy stock, and he tells me that there's no use in
going to any of the money-lenders so long as your extravagance continues to
be the talk of the town. Ay, you needn't grow red nor frown that way. The
letter was a private one to myself, and I'm only telling it to you in
confidence. Hear what he says: "You have a right to make your son a
fellow-commoner if you like, and he has a right, by his father's own
showing, to behave like a man of fortune; but neither of you have a right
to believe that men who advance money will accept these pretensions as
good security, or think anything but the worse of you both for your
extravagance."'

'And you don't mean to horsewhip him, sir?' burst out Dick.

'Not, at any rate, till I pay off two thousand pounds that I owe him, and
two years' interest at six per cent. that he has suffered me to become his
debtor for.'

'Lame as he is, I'll kick him before twenty-four hours are over.'