rds the manipulation of the man Disher. He will now
dictate to me. A refresher of a few hundreds would have been impolitic
to this kind of man; but the entire sum! and to a creditor in arms! You
reverse the proper situations of gentleman and tradesman. My supperman,
in particular, should be taught to understand that he is bound up in my
success. Something frightened him; he proceeded at law; and now we have
shown him that he has frightened us. An execution? My dear boy, I have
danced an execution five years running, and ordered, consecutively, at
the same house. Like other matters, an execution depends upon how you
treat it. The odds are that we have mortally offended Mistress Dolly.'
He apologized for dwelling on the subject, with the plea that it was an
essential part of his machinery of action, and the usual comparison of
'the sagacious General' whose forethought omitted no minutiae. I had to
listen.

The lady professed to be hurt. The payment, however, put an end to the
visit of this couple. Politic or not, it was a large sum to disburse,
and once more my attention became fixed on the probable display of
figures in my bankers' book. Bonds and bills were falling due: the
current expenses were exhausting. I tried to face the evil, and take
a line of conduct, staggering, as I did on my feet. Had I been well
enough, I believe I should have gone to my grandfather, to throw myself
on his good-nature; such was the brain's wise counsel: but I was all
nerves and alarms, insomuch that I interdicted Temple's writing to
Janet, lest it should bring on me letters from my aunt Dorothy, full of
advice that could no longer be followed, well-meant cautions that might
as well be addressed to the mile-posts behind me. Moreover, Janet would
be flying on the wind to me, and I had a craving for soft arms and the
look of her eyebrows, that warned me to keep her off if I intended to
act as became a man of good faith.

Fair weather, sunny green sea-water speckled with yachts shooting and
bounding, and sending me the sharp sense of life there is in dashed-up
fountains of silvery salt-spray, would have quickened my blood sooner
but for this hot-bed of fruitless adventure, tricksy precepts, and
wisdom turned imp, in which my father had again planted me. To pity him
seemed a childish affectation. His praise of my good looks pleased me,
for on that point he was fitted to be a judge, and I was still fancying
I had lost them on the heath. Troops o