"Listen to me first, before you make up your mind. If you took this
step, of course you would do so with the fixed intention of paying
the money yourself,--without any further reliance on Sowerby or on
any one else."

"I shall not rely on Mr. Sowerby again; you may be sure of that."

"What I mean is that you must teach yourself to recognize the debt as
your own. If you can do that, with your income you can surely pay it,
with interest, in two years. If Lord Lufton will assist you with his
name, I will so arrange the bills that the payments shall be made
to fall equally over that period. In that way the world will know
nothing about it, and in two years' time you will once more be a free
man. Many men, Mr. Robarts, have bought their experience much dearer
than that, I can assure you."

"Mr. Forrest, it is quite out of the question."

"You mean that Lord Lufton will not give you his name."

"I certainly shall not ask him; but that is not all. In the first
place, my income will not be what you think it, for I shall probably
give up the prebend at Barchester."

"Give up the prebend! give up six hundred a year!"

"And, beyond this, I think I may say that nothing shall tempt me to
put my name to another bill. I have learned a lesson which I hope I
may never forget."

"Then what do you intend to do?"

"Nothing!"

"Then those men will sell every stick of furniture about the place.
They know that your property here is enough to secure all that they
claim."

"If they have the power, they must sell it."

"And all the world will know the facts."

"So it must be. Of the faults which a man commits he must bear the
punishment. If it were only myself!"

"That's where it is, Mr. Robarts. Think what your wife will have to
suffer in going through such misery as that! You had better take my
advice. Lord Lufton, I am sure--" But the very name of Lord Lufton,
his sister's lover, again gave him courage. He thought, too, of the
accusations which Lord Lufton had brought against him on that night,
when he had come to him in the coffee-room of the hotel, and he felt
that it was impossible that he should apply to him for such aid. It
would be better to tell all to Lady Lufton! That she would relieve
him, let the cost to herself be what it might, he was very sure. Only
this;--that in looking to her for assistance he would be forced to
bite the dust in very deed.

"Thank you, Mr. Forrest, but I have made up my mind. Do not
think