Gathered In by Catherine Helen Spence — Read

Mr. Oswald had no overweening sense of the magnitude and permanence of his resources when he was sober, and he took increasing alarm at the extravagance of his only son under the fascinations of Mrs. Ellerton, and the baleful influence of her husband. Although money makes money, even in indifferent hands, it must be when these hands delegate their work to others more capable of administration. And in the prejudice which Jim had always taken against those whom his father trusted most, in the insulting speeches and suspicious innuendoes which were cast at old and valuable servants, and the preference which he showed for the worthless and time--serving toad-eaters who hung about the skirts of the rich man's son, George Oswald saw the gravest dangers in the future, when the power had slipped out of his grasp, and Jim began his headlong career of enjoyment and profusion.

"Kenneth," said his uncle to him one morning, when Jim was sleeping off the effects of a night at Castlehurst, and the two men were going their accustomed round, looking at the horses and giving general orders. "Kenneth, there's a lot on my mind that behoves to come out to you, for I have not another soul to put trust in. You'll give me your best advice, and not your advice only, but your willing help, I hope, for I need it all."