w machinery which this little fortune of yours could purchase. The
profits could be doubled and trebled, and we could look forward ere long
to holding our heads as high as the richest manufacturers at Leeds and
Bradford--while the mere interest in this money invested in consols as
at present would be absolutely useless to us."

Mrs. Sankey acknowledged the force of his argument, but was firm in her
determination to retain her hold of her money, and so they parted, not
in anger, for Mr. Mulready altogether disclaimed the possibility of his
being vexed, but with the sense that something like a barrier had sprung
up between them.

This went on for a few days, and although the subject was not mooted,
Mrs. Sankey felt that unless some concession on her part was made it was
likely that the match would fall through. This she had not the slightest
idea of permitting, and rather than it should happen she would have
married without any settlement at all, for she really loved, in her weak
way, the man who had been so attentive and deferential to her.

So one day the subject was renewed, and at last an understanding was
arrived at. Mrs. Sankey's money was to be put into the business in her
own name. Should she not survive her husband, he was to have the option
of paying the money to her children or of allowing them the sum of
eighty pounds a year each from the business. Should he not survive her
the mill was to be settled upon any children she might have after her
marriage; should there be no children it was to be hers absolutely.

All this was only arrived at after several long discussions, in all of
which Mrs. Sankey protested that she knew nothing of business, that it
was most painful to her to be thus discussing money matters, and that it
would be far better to leave it in the hands of a solicitor to arrange
in a friendly manner with him. She nevertheless stuck to her views, and
drove a bargain as keenly and shrewdly as any solicitor could have done
for her, to the surprise and exasperation of Mr. Mulready. Had he known
that she really loved him, and would, if she had been driven to it, have
sacrificed everything rather than lose him, he could have obtained
very different terms; but having no heart to speak of, himself, he was
ignorant of the power he possessed over her.

Bankruptcy stared him in the face unless he could obtain this increase
of capital, and he dared not, by pressing the point, risk its loss. The
terms, he t