Now, there could be no question of dealing on favorable terms with these gentlemen.

Mr.
Scarborough was, therefore, aware that the evil thing which he was about to say to his son would have lost its extreme bitterness.

It did not occur to him that, in making such a revelation as to his son's mother he would inflict any great grief on his son's heart.

To be illegitimate would be, he thought, nothing unless illegitimacy carried with it loss of property.

He hardly gave weight enough to the feeling that the eldest son was the eldest son, and too little to the triumph which was present to his own mind in saving the property for one of the family.