He spoke firmly, and Clarence knew by his tone that further remonstrance
would be unavailing, so with a dissatisfied look he left the room.

"Now, sir," said Stephen Ray sharply, when his son had taken his
departure. "I gave you ten minutes. You will need to be expeditious."

"It will take more than ten minutes--what I have to say," returned Bolton
coolly. "I am rather tired of standing, so you will excuse me if I sit
down."

As he spoke he dropped into a comfortable chair three feet from his host.

"Confound his impudence!" thought Ray, much annoyed.

"I think we had better go indoors," he said.

He did not care to be seen in an apparently friendly conversation with a
man like Bolton.

"I think myself it may be better."

He followed Ray into a room which the latter used as a library and office,
and took care to select a comfortable seat.

"Really, Stephen Ray," he remarked, glancing around him at the well-filled
bookcases, the handsome pictures, and the luxurious furniture, "you are
very nicely fixed here."

"I suppose you didn't come to tell me that," responded Stephen Ray with a
sneer.

"Well, not altogether, but it is as well to refer to it. I have known you
a good many years. I remember when you first came here to visit your uncle
in the character of a poor relation. I don't believe you had a hundred
dollars to your name."

Such references grated upon the purse-proud aristocrat, who tried to
persuade himself that he had always been as prosperous as at present.

"There is no occasion for your reminiscences," he said stiffly.

"No, I suppose you don't care to think of those days now. Your cousin,
Dudley, a fine young man, was a year or two older. Who would have thought
that the time would come when you--the poor cousin--would be reigning in
his place?"

"If that is all you have to say, our interview may as well close."

"It isn't all I have to say. I must indulge in a few more reminiscences,
though you dislike them. A few years passed. Dudley married against his
father's wishes; that is, his father did not approve of his selection, and
he fell out of favor. As he lost favor you gained it."

"That is true enough, but it is an old story."

"Does it seem just that an own son should be disinherited and a
stranger----"

"A near relative," corrected Stephen Ray.

"Well, a near relative, but less near than an only son. Does it seem right
that Dudley should have been disinherited and you put in hi