“I’m master here now; I suppose you know that. If you don’t, I’ll soon make you know it. The old man’s gone off and left no will behind him. Do you know that? because if you don’t, you will know it from this time, and be made to know it, too. I am the heir and sole master of all here. Now, last night, you assumed some mighty fine airs, and if it wasn’t that a parcel of fools might be talking, I would give you such a thrashing now that you shouldn’t be able to crawl for a month. There is one thing I can do, and that I will do. See, I am master! get out of here! Come, be off at once, or I’ll kick you out, beggar! If you fancy you have any claim upon me, go to law for it--I can stand that. You shan’t have a farthing from me any other way. You’ve been king of the castle here too long, so be off, Mr. Beggarly Upstart!” He extended his arm to push young Vivian to the door, but the latter turned to him with a glittering eye, and a lip which trembled with intense emotion. “Do not lay a hand upon me,” he said, in low but emphatic tones, “or I will fell you to the earth. I would not, in memory of the dear and noble man your father, and my constant benefactor, willingly be guilty of such an act at this moment; but the horrible consequence of your last night’s frantic bestiality, coupled with your present barbarous behaviour, almost drives me into a frenzy of desperation; it wants but your touch to thrust me into madness. I warn you to let me pass hence, without another word or gesture.” Robert Harper had had a too lengthened experience in physiognomy not to be able to interpret the expression which made Hal’s features rigid, as though they were chiselled in marble, and he turned on his heel, without attempting to reply. Harry Vivian seized his hat and cloak, and rushed from the place. One earnest interview he sought with the solicitor who had so long conducted Mr. Harper’s affairs, in which that gentleman promised to protect the interests of Mrs. Harper, and to place the property under proper seal and authority, so that Robert Harper could not commence to dissipate it in wild debauchery before it was proved, beyond a doubt, that there was no will--and then to Highbury. We pass over Hal’s passionate grief at the bedside of his deceased relative, to whom he was so fondly and warmly attached, and the equally sorrowful interview between Mrs. Harper and him, during which her agony and incoherence, occasioned by the terrible affliction with which she had been so suddenly visited, prevented him narrating what that morning had taken place at the manufactory, or telling her that he would not fail to watch over her when she should be left alone with her son. Subsequently he forwarded a claim to Robert Harper, to be present at the funeral of his uncle. His letter was returned to him, torn in two halves.