already done, sir," broke in Glencore.

"Wherein, then, can I be of any service to you?"

"I am coming to that. I had come to it before, had you not interrupted
me. I want you to be guardian to the boy. I want you to replace me in
all that regards authority over him. You know life well, Upton. You know
it not alone in its paths of pleasure and success, but you understand
thoroughly the rugged footway over which humble men toil wearily to
fortune. None can better estimate a man's chances of success, nor more
surely point the road by which he is to attain it. The provision which I
destine for him will be an humble one, and he will need to rely upon his
own efforts. You will not refuse me this service, Upton. I ask it in the
name of our old friendship."

"There is but one objection I could possibly have, and yet that seems to
be insurmountable."

"And what may it be?" cried Glencore.

"Simply, that in acceding to your request, I make myself an accomplice
in your plan, and thus aid and abet the very scheme I am repudiating."

"What avails your repudiation if it will not turn me from my resolve?
That it will not, I 'll swear to you as solemnly as ever an oath was
taken. I tell you again, the thing is done. For the consequences which
are to follow on it you have no responsibility; these are my concern."

"I should like a little time to think over it," said Upton, with the air
of one struggling with irresolution. "Let me have this evening to make
up my mind; to-morrow you shall have my answer."

"Be it so, then," said Glencore; and, turning his face away, waved a
cold farewell with his hand.

We do not purpose to follow Sir Horace as he retired, nor does our task
require that we should pry into the secret recesses of his wily nature;
enough if we say that in asking for time, his purpose was rather to
afford another opportunity of reflection to Glencore than to give
himself more space for deliberation. He had found, by the experience of
his calling, that the delay we often crave for, to resolve a doubt, has
sufficed to change the mind of him who originated the difficulty.

"I'll give him some hours, at least," thought he, "to ponder over what I
have said. Who knows but the argument may seem better in memory than in
action? Such things have happened before now." And having finished
this reflection, he turned to peruse the pamphlet of a quack doctor who
pledged himself to cure all disorders of the circulation by attend