Chapter 8

"We are here to fight the battle of life, not to shirk it."

"The last days of my life until to-day,
What were they, could I see them on the street
Lie as they fell. Would they be ears of wheat
Sown once for food, but trodden into clay?
Or golden coins squandered and still to pay?"

"The only way to look bravely and prosperously forward is never to
look back."

Antony arrived at Hallam about an hour after the squire's death. He
was not a man of quick affections, but he loved his father. He was
grieved at his loss, and he was very anxious as to the disposition
of the estate. It is true that he had sold his birthright, but yet
he half expected that both his father and sister would at the last
be opposed to his dispossession. The most practical of men on every
other subject, he yet associated with his claim upon Hallam all kinds
of romantic generosities. He felt almost sure that, when the will came
to be read, he would find Hallam left to him, under conditions which
he could either fulfill or set aside. It seemed, after all, a
preposterous thing to leave a woman in control of such a property when
there were already two male heirs. And Hallam had lately grown steadily
upon his desires. He had not found money-making either the pleasant or
easy process he had imagined it would be; in fact, he had had more than
one great disappointment to contend against.

As the squire had foreseen, his marriage with Lady Evelyn had not
turned out well for him in a financial way. Lord Eltham, within a year
after it, found a lucrative position in the colonies for his son
George, and advised his withdrawal from the firm of "Hallam & Eltham."
The loss of so much capital was a great blow to the young house, and
he did not find in the Darragh connection any equivalent. No one could
deny that Antony's plans were prudent, and dictated by a far-seeing
policy; but perhaps he looked too far ahead to rightly estimate the
contingencies in the interval. At any rate, after the withdrawal of
George Eltham, it had been, in the main with him, a desperate struggle,
and undoubtedly, Lord Eltham, by the very negation of his manner, by
the raising of an eye-lash, or the movement of a shoulder, had made
the struggle frequently harder than it ought to have been.

Yet Antony was making a brave fight for his position; if he could hold
on, he might compel success. People in this age have not the time to
be persistently hostile. Lord Eltham might get into power; a score
of favorable contingencies might arise; the chances for him were at
least equal to those against him. Just at this time his succession
to the Hallam estate might save him. He was fully determined if it
did come into