Dawn

nd you always will be a liar. You t

hat I am only here on sufferance, whilst you are the son of the house. It doe

am going to quicken your memory up presently, I can tell you; I have got a good deal to pay off, I'm thinking. I know what you are at; you want to play cuckoo, to turn 'Cousin Philip' out that 'Cousin George' may fill the nest. You know the old man's soft points, and you keep working him up against me. You think that you wo

n no mean antagonist for a full-grown man; much more then did he look formidable to the lankly,

strike me, are you, when you

tch you with my tongue, at any ra

on't! I'll tel

ve something to lie about this time," and he advanced to the atta

w-found mate. He did more than curse; he fought like a cornered rat, and with as much chance as the rat with a trained fox-terrier. In a few seconds his head was as snugly tucked away in the chancery of his cousin

ul that he never quite forgot it. His nose, too, was never so straight again. I

Philip, as he critically surveyed the writhing mass on the grou

out of every ten of the Anglo-Saxon race when they are engaged on killing or hurting some other living creature. The face, too, had a certain dignity about it, a little of the dignity of justice; it was the face of one who feels that if his action has been precipitate and severe, it h

n the sky when a cloud passes over the sun; the light faded out of it. It was aston

ore him, he said, "Now, then, get up; I'm not going to touch you again. Perhaps, though, you won't be in quite such a hurry to tell lies about me an

ecided effect on the grovelling George, who slowly raised himself upon

of the expression that hovered on the blurred features and in the half-closed eyes. But no attempt was made by George to translate the look into words, and indeed Philip felt that it was untranslatable. He also felt dimly that the hate and malice with which he was regarded by the individual at his feet was of a more concentrated and enduring character than most

wly down a shrubbery-path on the other side of the yard wall. At any rate, that was the effect produced; for next moment, before Philip could think of escape, had he wished to escape, a door in th

rt of eighty. He was extremely tall, over six feet, and stood upright as a lifeguardsman; indeed, his height and stately carriage would alone have made him a remarkable-looking man, had there been nothing else unusual about him; but, as it happened, his features were as uncommon as his person. They were clear-cut and cast in a noble mould. The nose was large and aquiline, the chin, like his son Philip's, square and determined; but it was his eyes that gave a painful fascination to his countenance. They were steely blue, and glittered under the pe

nickname my descendants will be able to gather what the knaves and fools with whom I lived thought of my character. Ah! boy, I am wearing out; people will soon be staring

auty and animation that had clothed it a minute before; now it grew leaden and hard, the good died away from it altogether, and, instead of a young god bright with vengea

ay opened its mouth and spoke in a

terrupting your tete-a-tete, but may

eturned

, perhaps you will inform me why you are lying on your fa

e from the stones, and, looking at

llen down and hurt himself, or if there

efore Philip could make any reply

is battered face, "that I am suffering a good deal, but what I want to say is, that I beg you will not blame Philip. He thought that I had wronged him, and,

roke in Phil

have taken any notice of his words-knowing that he would regret them on reflection-had he not in an unguarded moment allowed himself to taunt me with my birth. Uncle, you know the misfortune of my father's marriage, and that she was not his

, he cannot sp

tinued repetition of the very ugly word 'lie' is neither narrative nor argument. Perhaps you will

k as you told me, but he persuaded me to it, and he was to have shared the profits if we won. I was a blackguard, but he was a bigger blackguard; w

error; the recollection of what took place has escaped him.

ne son, to know him to be such a brute, such a bearer of false witness, such an impostor as you are. Do you know that I have just seen Mr. B

t, and I do

d him how you had spent the ten pounds I gave you to pay in, and that he brought the money, his own savings, to replace what you had gambled a

out it. Why won't you trust me a little more, father? I tell you that you are turning me into a scoundrel. I am being twisted up into a net of lies till I am obliged to lie

d his father, striking his gold-headed cane

meant nothing,"

ave proved yourself a thief; we have spoken the truth, and you are, what you are so fond of calling your cousin, who is worth two of you, a liar. Now listen. However imperious I may have grown in my old age, I can still respect the man who thwarts me even though I hate him; but I despise the man who deceives me, as I despise you,

d, but before they reached

oice, "a trifling indisposition. I wish you both g

rge came up to his cousin an

ith me, Philip? it always ends like t

door towards the lake. George regarded his departing form with a peculiar smile,