But the
squire was turning in his mind all means of depriving that condition as
far as was possible of its glory. When he had first heard of the injury
that had been done to Harry Annesley, he thought that he would leave to
our hero all the furniture, all the gems, all the books, all the wine,
all the cattle which were accumulated at Tretton. Augustus should have
the bare acres, and still barer house, but nothing else. In thinking of
this he had been actuated by a conviction that it would be useless for
him to leave them to Mountjoy. Whatever might be left to Mountjoy would
in fact be left to the creditors; and therefore Harry Annesley with his
injuries had been felt to be a proper recipient, not of the squire's
bounty, but of the results of his hatred for his son.
To run counter to the law! That had ever been the chief object of the
squire's ambition. To arrange everything so that it should be seen that
he had set all laws at defiance! That had been his great pride. He had
done so notably, and with astonishing astuteness, in reference to his
wife and two sons. But now there had come up a condition of things in
which he could again show his cleverness. Augustus had been most anxious
to get up all the post-obit bonds which the creditors held, feeling, as
his father well understood, that he would thus prevent them from making
any farther inquiry when the squire should have died.
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