of Cholmondeley Castle, Warwickshire. (Pronounced K'koobry Thlanover

Marshbanks Sellers Vycount Barkly, of Chumly Castle, Warrikshr.) He is

standing by a great window, in an attitude suggestive of respectful

attention to what his father is saying and equally respectful dissent

from the positions and arguments offered. The father walks the floor as

he talks, and his talk shows that his temper is away up toward summer

heat.

"Soft-spirited as you are, Berkeley, I am quite aware that when you have

once made up your mind to do a thing which your ideas of honor and

justice require you to do, argument and reason are (for the time being,)

wasted upon you--yes, and ridicule; persuasion, supplication, and command

as well. To my mind--"

"Father, if you will look at it without prejudice, without passion, you

must concede that I am not doing a rash thing, a thoughtless, wilful

thing, with nothing substantial behind it to justify it. I did not

create the American claimant to the earldom of Rossmore; I did not hunt

for him, did not find him, did not obtrude him upon your notice.

He found himself, he injected himself into our lives--"

And has made mine a purgatory for ten years with his tiresome letters,

his wordy reasonings, his acres of tedious evidence,--"

Which you would never read, would never consent to read. Yet in common

fairness he was entitled to a hearing. That hearing would either prove

The American Claimant