ent away the bailiff and the blacksmith
returned; but Sir Harry's power of resistance was gone, so that he
succumbed to the new smithy without a word.

CHAPTER XX.

COUSIN GEORGE'S SUCCESS.

Thoughts crowded quick into the mind of Sir Harry Hotspur as he
had himself driven over to Penrith. It was a dull, dreary day in
November, and he took the close carriage. The distance was about ten
miles, and he had therefore something above an hour for thinking.
When men think much, they can rarely decide. The affairs as to which
a man has once acknowledged to himself that he may be either wise or
foolish, prudent or imprudent, are seldom matters on which he can by
any amount of thought bring himself to a purpose which to his own
eyes shall be clearly correct. When he can decide without thinking,
then he can decide without a doubt, and with perfect satisfaction.
But in this matter Sir Harry thought much. There had been various
times at which he was quite sure that it was his duty to repudiate
this cousin utterly. There had never been a time at which he had been
willing to accept him. Nevertheless, at this moment, with all his
struggles of thought he could not resolve. Was his higher duty due
to his daughter, or to his family,--and through his family to his
country, which, as he believed, owed its security and glory to the
maintenance of its aristocracy? Would he be justified,--justified
in any degree,--in subjecting his child to danger in the hope that
his name and family pride might be maintained? Might he take his own
desires in that direction as any make-weight towards a compliance
with his girl's strong wishes, grounded as they were on quite other
reasons? Mr. Boltby had been very eager in telling him that he ought
to have nothing to say to this cousin, had loaded the cousin's name
with every imaginable evil epithet; and of Mr. Boltby's truth and
honesty there could be no doubt. But then Mr. Boltby had certainly
exceeded his duty, and was of course disposed, by his professional
view of the matter, to think any step the wisest which would tend to
save the property from dangerous hands. Sir Harry felt that there
were things to be saved of more value than the property;--the family,
the title, perhaps that reprobate cousin himself; and then, above
all, his child. He did believe that his child would not smile for him
again, unless he would consent to make some effort in favour of her
lover.

Doubtless the man was very