"What made you do that?" asked the squire.
"That has nothing to do with it; but I did."
"I understood all that before."
"But you didn't understand that Mr. Annesley behaved perfectly well in all that occurred."
"Did he tell a lie about it afterward?"
"My brother no doubt lured him on to make an untrue statement."
"A lie!"
"You may call it so if you will. If you think that Augustus was to have it all his own way, I disagree with you altogether. In point of fact, your nephew behaved through the whole of that matter as well as a man could do. Practically, he told no lie at all. He did just what a man ought to do, and anything that you have heard to the contrary is calumnious and false. As I am told that you have been led by my brother's statement to disinherit your nephew—"
"I have done nothing of the kind."
"I am very glad to hear it. He has not, at any rate, deserved it; and I have felt it to be my duty to come and tell you."