Or he would surely gamble himself into farther and utter ruin. At any
rate he would be well out of the way, and Augustus in his pride had been
glad to feel that he had his brother well under his thumb. Then the debt
had been paid with the object of saving the estate from litigation on
the part of the creditors. That had been his one great mistake. And he
had not known his father, or his father's guile, or his father's
strength. Why had not his father died at once?--as all the world had
assured him would be the case. Looking back he could remember that the
idea of paying the creditors had at first come from his father, simply
as a vague idea! Oh, what a crafty rascal his father had been! And then
he had allowed himself, in his pride, to insult his father, and had
spoken of his father's coming death as a thing that was desirable! From
that moment his father had plotted his ruin. He could see it all now.
He was still minded to make the spoon; but he found that he should spoil
the horn. Had there been any one to assist him he would still have
persevered. He thought that he could have persevered with a lawyer who
would really have taken up his case with interest. If Mountjoy could be
made to drink--so as to die! He was still next in the entail; and he was
his brother's heir should his brother die without a will.
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