answer a letter from
the office, 'what would you do with this bore of a business, if it came
to you?'

'Get rid of it,' said Robert, surveying him with startled eyes.

'Aye--sell it, and get the devilry, as you call it, multiplied to all
infinity.'

'Close it.'

'Boil soup in the coppers; bake loaves in the furnaces? It makes you
look at me perilously--and a perilous game you would find it, most likely
to swallow this place and all the rest. Why, you, who had the making of
a man of business in you, might reflect that you can't annihilate
property without damage to other folks.'

'I did not reflect,' said Robert, gravely; 'the matter never occurred to
me.'

'What is the result of your reflection now?'

'Nothing at all,' was the somewhat impatient reply. 'I trust never to
have to consider. Get it out of my hands at any sacrifice, so as it may
do the least harm to others. Had I no other objection to that business,
I should have no choice.'

'Your cloth? Well, that's a pity, for I see how it could be mitigated,
so as to satisfy your scruples;' and Mervyn, whose head could work when
it was not necessary, detailed a scheme for gradually contracting the
most objectionable traffic, and adopting another branch of the trade.

'Excellent,' said Robert, assenting with delight at each pause. 'You
will carry it out.'

'I? I'm only a reprobate distiller.'

There it ended, and Robert must have patience.

The guardian, Mr. Crabbe, came as soon as his gout would permit, and
hemmed and grunted in reply to the strange narrative into which he had
come to inquire. Acting was as yet impossible; Mervyn was forbidden to
transact business, and Bertha was far too ill for the removal of the
young ladies to be attempted. Miss Fennimore did indeed formally give in
her resignation of her situation, but she was too necessary as a nurse
for the time of her departure to be fixed, and Mr. Crabbe was unable to
settle anything definitively. He found Robert--who previously had
spurred him to strong measures--bent on persuading him to lenity, and
especially on keeping Phoebe with Mervyn; and after a day and night of
perplexity, the old gentleman took his leave, promising to come again on
Bertha's recovery, and to pacify the two elder sisters by representing
the condition of Beauchamp, and that for the present the Incumbent of St.
Matthew's and Miss Charlecote might be considered as sufficient guardians
for the inmates. 'Or if the