I consider it my duty." "Certainly," replied Hycy, "if you think so, I cannot blame you; but I see clearly that you misunderstand my character--that is all." They separated in a few minutes afterwards, and Hycy in a very serious and irritable mood rode homewards.

In truth his prospects at this peculiar period were anything but agreeable.

Here his love-suit, if it could be called so, had just been rejected by Miss Clinton, in a manner that utterly precluded all future hope in that quarter.

With Kathleen Cavanagh he had been equally unsuccessful.

His brother Edward was now at home, too, a favorite with, and inseparable from his father, who of late maintained any intercourse that took place between himself and Hycy, with a spirit of cool, easy sarcasm, that was worse than anger itself.
His mother, also, in consequence of her unjustifiable attempts to defend her son's irregularities, had lost nearly all influence with her husband, and if the latter should withdraw, as he had threatened to do, the allowance of a hundred a year with which he supplied him, he scarcely saw on what hand he could turn.