"Sir, you insult me," he said, "and with your permission I will retire." And he took up his hat and gloves. "Sit down, sir--sit down, I say," cried the elder man, sternly. "Don't imagine that I have done with you yet." "I have never been a frequenter of low gaming-houses; I have never cheated at cards in my life," said the young man, proudly. "You would not have been a Denison if you had cheated at cards. But again I tell you to sit down. I have much to say to you." Gilbert the younger did as he was told, but with something of an ill grace. In his eyes there was a cold, hard look that had not been there before. "Nephew, if you have not yet disgraced yourself--and I don't believe that you have--you are on the high-road to do so. Has it ever entered your head to think whither such mad doings as yours must inevitably land you?" "I suppose that other men before me have sown their wild oats," said Gilbert, sulkily. "I have heard it said that you yourself, sir----" "Never mind me. The question we have now to consider is that of your future. When you are master of Heron Dyke--if you ever do become its master--is it your intention to make ducks and drakes of the old property, as you have made ducks and drakes of the fortune left you by your father?" "Really, sir, that is a question that has never entered into my thoughts." "Then it is high time that it did enter them. I said just now 'If you ever do become the master of Heron Dyke.'" "Is that intended as a threat, sir?" asked Gilbert, a little fiercely. "Never mind what it is intended as, but listen to me. I presume you are quite aware that it is in my power to leave Heron Dyke to anyone whom I may choose to nominate as my heir--to the greatest stranger in England if I like to do so?" "I am of course aware that the property is not entailed," said the other, stiffly. "And never has been entailed," said Mr. Denison with emphasis. "It has come down from heir male to heir male, for six hundred years. Providence having blessed me with no children of my own, by the unwritten law of the family the property would descend in due sequence to you. But that unwritten law is one which I have full power to abrogate if I think well to do so. Such being the case, ask yourself this question, Gilbert Denison: 'Judging from my past life for the last four years, am I a fit and proper person to become the representative of one of the oldest families in Norfolk? And would my uncle, taking into account all that he knows of me, be really justified in putting me into that position?'" The elder man paused, the younger one hung his head. "I think, sir, that the best thing you can do will be to let me go headlong to ruin after my own fashion," was all that he said. "You will be good enough to remember that I have another nephew," resumed the dying man. "There is another Gilbert Denison as well as yourself." "Aye! I'm not likely to forget him," said the other, savagely.