"Of nothing. There is no accusation at all."
"Nor what the punishment is to be. I have learned that you have left to Mountjoy all the furniture in the house."
"Yes, poor boy!—when I found that you had turned him out."
"I never turned him out,—not till your house was open to receive him."
"You would not have wished him to go into the poor-house?"
"I did the very best for him. I kept him going when there was no one else to give him a shilling."
"He must have had a bitter time," said the father. "I hope it may have done him good."
"I think I behaved to him just as an elder brother should have done. He was not particularly grateful, but that was not my fault."
"Still, I thought it best to leave him the old sticks about the place. As he was to have the property, it was better that he should have the sticks." As he said this he managed to turn himself round and look his son full in the face. Such a look as it was! There was the gleam of victory, and the glory of triumph, and the venom of malice. "You wouldn't have them separated, would you?"
"I have heard of some farther trick of this kind."