my wickedness; but so much right principle
as that, I hope, remains. I will put my name to no other bill; not
for you, not even for myself."

"But, Robarts, under your present circumstances that will be
madness."

"Then I will be mad."

"Have you seen Forrest? If you will speak to him I think you will
find that everything can be accommodated."

"I already owe Mr. Forrest a hundred and fifty pounds, which I
obtained from him when you pressed me for the price of that horse,
and I will not increase the debt. What a fool I was again there!
Perhaps you do not remember that, when I agreed to buy the horse, the
price was to be my contribution to the liquidation of these bills."

"I do remember it; but I will tell you how that was."

"It does not signify. It has been all of a piece."

"But listen to me. I think you would feel for me if you knew all
that I have gone through. I pledge you my solemn word that I
had no intention of asking you for the money when you took the
horse;--indeed I had not. But you remember that affair of Lufton's,
when he came to you at your hotel in London and was so angry about an
outstanding bill."

"I know that he was very unreasonable as far as I was concerned."

"He was so; but that makes no difference. He was resolved, in his
rage, to expose the whole affair; and I saw that, if he did so, it
would be most injurious to you, seeing that you had just accepted
your stall at Barchester." Here the poor prebendary winced terribly.
"I moved heaven and earth to get up that bill. Those vultures stuck
to their prey when they found the value which I attached to it, and I
was forced to raise above a hundred pounds at the moment to obtain
possession of it, although every shilling absolutely due on it had
long since been paid. Never in my life did I wish to get money as I
did to raise that hundred and twenty pounds: and as I hope for mercy
in my last moments, I did that for your sake. Lufton could not have
injured me in that matter."

"But you told him that you got it for twenty-five pounds."

"Yes, I told him so. I was obliged to tell him that, or I should have
apparently condemned myself by showing how anxious I was to get it.
And you know I could not have explained all this before him and you.
You would have thrown up the stall in disgust." Would that he had!
That was Mark's wish now,--his futile wish. In what a slough of
despond had he come to wallow in consequence of his folly on that
night a