o do so. He had acted "on the square."
In compliance with the bargain undoubtedly made by him, he had twice
proposed to Polly, and had Polly accepted his offer on either of
these occasions, there would,--he now acknowledged to himself,--have
been very great difficulty in escaping from the difficulty. Polly
had thought fit to refuse him, and of course he was free. But,
nevertheless, there might be trouble in store for him. He had hardly
begun to ask himself in what way this trouble might next show itself,
when Neefit was at the Moonbeam. Three days after the receipt of
his letter, when he rode into the Moonbeam yard on his return from
hunting, there was Mr. Neefit waiting to receive him.

He certainly had not answered Mr. Neefit's letter, having told
himself that he might best do so by a personal visit in Conduit
Street; but now that Neefit was there, the personal intercourse did
not seem to him to be so easy. He greeted the breeches-maker very
warmly, while Pepper, Cox, and Mr. Horsball, with sundry grooms and
helpers, stood by and admired. Something of Mr. Neefit's money, and
of Polly's charms as connected with the young Squire, had already
reached the Moonbeam by the tongue of Rumour; and now Mr. Neefit had
been waiting for the last four hours in the little parlour within
the Moonbeam bar. He had eaten his mutton chop, and drunk three or
four glasses of gin and water, but had said nothing of his mission.
Mrs. Horsball, however, had already whispered her suspicions to her
husband's sister, a young lady of forty, who dispensed rum, gin, and
brandy, with very long ringlets and very small glasses.

"You want to have a few words with me, old fellow," said Ralph to
the breeches-maker, with a cheery laugh. It was a happy idea that of
making them all around conceive that Neefit had come after his money.
Only it was not successful. Men are not dunned so rigorously when
they have just fallen into their fortunes. Neefit, hardly speaking
above his breath, with that owlish, stolid look, which was always
common to him except when he was measuring a man for a pair of
breeches, acknowledged that he did. "Come along, old fellow,"
said Ralph, taking him by the arm. "But what'll you take to drink
first?" Neefit shook his head, and accompanied Ralph into the house.
Ralph had a private sitting-room of his own, so that there was no
difficulty on that score. "What's all this about?" he said, standing
with his back to the fire, and still h