er would, in accordance with Sir
Thomas's view of things, destroy everything.

"Well, Ralph," he said, sighing, almost groaning, as his late ward
took the now accustomed chair opposite to his own.

"I wish I'd never been born," said Ralph, "and that Gregory stood in
my place."

"But you have been born, Ralph. We must take things as we find them."
Then there was a long silence. "I think, you know, that you should
make up your mind one way or the other. Your uncle of course feels
that as he is ready to pay the money at once he is entitled to an
immediate answer."

"I don't see that at all," said Ralph. "I am under no obligation to
my uncle, and I don't see why I am to be bustled by him. He is doing
nothing for my sake."

"He has, at any rate, the power of retracting."

"Let him retract."

"And then you'll be just where you were before,--ready to fall into
the hands of the Jews. If you must part with your property you cannot
do so on better terms."

"It seems to me that I shall be selling L7,000 a year in land for
about L1,200 a year in the funds."

"Just so;--that's about it, I suppose. But can you tell me when the
land will be yours,--or whether it will ever be yours at all? What is
it that you have got to sell? But, Ralph, it is no good going over
all that again."

"I know that, Sir Thomas."

"I had hoped you would have come to some decision. If you can save
the property of course you ought to do so. If you can live on what
pittance is left to you--"

"I can save it."

"Then do save it."

"I can save it by--marrying."

"By selling yourself to the daughter of a man who makes--breeches! I
can give you advice on no other point; but I do advise you not to do
that. I look upon an ill-assorted marriage as the very worst kind of
ruin. I cannot myself conceive any misery greater than that of having
a wife whom I could not ask my friends to meet."

Ralph when he heard this blushed up to the roots of his hair. He
remembered that when he had first mentioned to Sir Thomas his
suggested marriage with Polly Neefit he had said that as regarded
Polly herself he thought that Patience and Clarissa would not
object to her. He was now being told by Sir Thomas himself that his
daughters would certainly not consent to meet Polly Neefit, should
Polly Neefit become Mrs. Newton. He, too, had his ideas of his own
standing in the world, and had not been slow to assure himself
that the woman whom he might choose for his wif