ring that time,
to have it included in the general schedule of my debts
which are to be secured on the Chaldicotes property.

The meaning of which was that Miss Dunstable was to be cozened into
paying the money under an idea that it was a part of the sum covered
by the existing mortgage.

What you said the other day at Barchester, as to never
executing another bill, is very well as regards future
transactions. Nothing can be wiser than such a resolution.
But it would be folly--worse than folly--if you were
to allow your furniture to be seized when the means of
preventing it are so ready to your hand. By leaving the
new bill in Forrest's hands you may be sure that you are
safe from the claws of such birds of prey as these Tozers.
Even if I cannot get it settled when the three months are
over, Forrest will enable you to make any arrangement that
may be most convenient.

For Heaven's sake, my dear fellow, do not refuse this.
You can hardly conceive how it weighs upon me, this fear
that bailiffs should make their way into your wife's
drawing-room. I know you think ill of me, and I do not
wonder at it. But you would be less inclined to do so if
you knew how terribly I am punished. Pray let me hear that
you will do as I counsel you.

Yours always faithfully,

N. SOWERBY.

In answer to which the parson wrote a very short reply:--

Framley, July, 185--.

MY DEAR SOWERBY,

I will sign no more bills on any consideration.

Yours truly,

MARK ROBARTS.

And then having written this, and having shown it to his wife, he
returned to the shrubbery walk and paced it up and down, looking
every now and then to Sowerby's letter as he thought over all the
past circumstances of his friendship with that gentleman. That the
man who had written this letter should be his friend--that very fact
was a disgrace to him. Sowerby so well knew himself and his own
reputation, that he did not dare to suppose that his own word would
be taken for anything,--not even when the thing promised was an act
of the commonest honesty. "The old bills shall be given back into
your own hands," he had declared with energy, knowing that his friend
and correspondent would not feel himself secure against further fraud
under less stringent guarantee. This gentleman, this county member,
the owner of Chaldicotes, with whom Mark Robarts had been so anxious
to be on te