use she refused to do that other thing for you
yesterday. You understand most things, Nathaniel; but I am not sure
that you understand women; not, at any rate, such a woman as her." It
went against the grain with Mr. Sowerby, this seeking of pecuniary
assistance from the very woman whose hand he had attempted to gain
about a fortnight since; but he allowed his sister to prevail. What
could any man do in such straits that would not go against the grain?
At the present moment he felt in his mind an infinite hatred against
the duke, Mr. Fothergill, Gumption & Gazebee, and all the tribes of
Gatherum Castle and South Audley Street; they wanted to rob him of
that which had belonged to the Sowerbys before the name of Omnium
had been heard of in the county, or in England! The great leviathan
of the deep was anxious to swallow him up as a prey! He was to be
swallowed up, and made away with, and put out of sight, without a
pang of remorse. Any measure which could now present itself as the
means of staving off so evil a day would be acceptable; and therefore
he gave his sister the commission of making this second proposal
to Miss Dunstable. In cursing the duke--for he did curse the duke
lustily--it hardly occurred to him to think that, after all, the duke
only asked for his own. As for Mrs. Harold Smith, whatever may be
the view taken of her general character as a wife and a member of
society, it must be admitted that as a sister she had virtues.

CHAPTER XXXIII

Consolation

On the next day at two o'clock punctually, Mark Robarts was at the
"Dragon of Wantly," walking up and down the very room in which the
party had breakfasted after Harold Smith's lecture, and waiting for
the arrival of Mr. Sowerby. He had been very well able to divine what
was the business on which his friend wished to see him, and he had
been rather glad than otherwise to receive the summons. Judging of
his friend's character by what he had hitherto seen, he thought that
Mr. Sowerby would have kept out of the way, unless he had it in his
power to make some provision for these terrible bills. So he walked
up and down the dingy room, impatient for the expected arrival, and
thought himself wickedly ill-used in that Mr. Sowerby was not there
when the clock struck a quarter to three. But when the clock struck
three, Mr. Sowerby was there, and Mark Robarts's hopes were nearly at
an end.

"Do you mean that they will demand nine hundred pounds?" said
Rob