"Let us have a little talk now about this business, this hold which you think you have got over poor old Pouncet," said Mr. Stenhouse. "Do you know, my dear fellow, Pouncet has been established here some thirty years, and the people believe in him; do you think they will take your word, at your age, against so old an authority? I advise you to think of it a little, my friend, before you begin." "My word has very little to do with it," said Horace; "of course, I know nothing of the transaction except by evidence, which has satisfied my own mind; and Squire Musgrave was quite as well known, while he lived, as Mr. Pouncet. Besides, it is your own opinion that the public verdict is always against the attorney; and then," said Horace, with a slight irrepressible sneer at his own words, "we have all the story in our favour, and the sympathy which everybody feels for a disinherited heir." "But then, your disinherited heir has not a penny in his purse, nor the means of raising one--a private in a marching regiment," said Stenhouse, with a laugh; "you yourself are one or two-and-twenty at the outside, have spent a year in Mr. Pouncet's office, and do not assert yourself, so far as I am aware, to have any command of capital. How are you to do it?--your father, eh?--your father has a place in the country, and perhaps influence--you mean to seek support by his means?" "My father," said Horace, rudely enough, "has no influence--and, if he had, would never use it for me; my father is my greatest enemy, or takes me for his, which is the same thing." "That is very extraordinary," said Stenhouse, with a sudden appearance of interest; "takes you for his enemy?--how is that?--there is surely some mystery here." "I don't see that it matters at all to what we were speaking of," said Horace. "Look here, Mr. Stenhouse, I'll speak plainly: Pouncet and you are in the same boat--if you don't actually lose money by having this brought to a trial, you'll lose reputation--I know you will. I know well enough the thing was your doing. I don't pretend to be very clever," continued Horace; "but I think I know a man when I see him. It was you who found out the secret about that land--it was you who put the affair into Pouncet's head--it was you who managed it all along--the success of the undertaking belongs to you, and you know it. Now, look here--perhaps there's no legal hold upon you; but you are a flourishing man, with people who believe in you, as much as some other people believe in Mr. Pouncet. If this matter should come to a trial, how would your reputation come out of it? I ask you boldly, because you know better than I do the whole affair."