none of us could care to go so far; or the arbitrament of chance -

and here is a guinea piece. Will you stand by the toss of the

coin?"

"I will stand and fall by it," said Mr. Henry. "Heads, I go;

shield, I stay."

The coin was spun, and it fell shield. "So there is a lesson for

Jacob," says the Master.

"We shall live to repent of this," says Mr. Henry, and flung out of

the hall.

As for Miss Alison, she caught up that piece of gold which had just

sent her lover to the wars, and flung it clean through the family

shield in the great painted window.

"If you loved me as well as I love you, you would have stayed,"

cried she.

"'I could not love you, dear, so well, loved I not honour more,'"

sang the Master.

"Oh!" she cried, "you have no heart - I hope you may be killed!"

and she ran from the room, and in tears, to her own chamber.

It seems the Master turned to my lord with his most comical manner,

and says he, "This looks like a devil of a wife."

"I think you are a devil of a son to me," cried his father, "you

that have always been the favourite, to my shame be it spoken.

Never a good hour have I gotten of you, since you were born; no,

never one good hour," and repeated it again the third time.

Whether it was the Master's levity, or his insubordination, or Mr.

Henry's word about the favourite son, that had so much disturbed my

lord, I do not know; but I incline to think it was the last, for I

have it by all accounts that Mr. Henry was more made up to from

that hour.

Altogether it was in pretty ill blood with his family that the

<<BackPagesTo menuNext>>