y-first of June.

On the day before, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite arrived at his father's house,
and asked (as I know from Mr. Ablewhite, senior, himself) for a loan of
three hundred pounds. Mark the sum; and remember at the same time,
that the half-yearly payment to the young gentleman was due on
the twenty-fourth of the month. Also, that the whole of the young
gentleman's fortune had been spent by his Trustee, by the end of the
year 'forty-seven.

Mr. Ablewhite, senior, refused to lend his son a farthing.

The next day Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite rode over, with you, to Lady
Verinder's house. A few hours afterwards, Mr. Godfrey (as you yourself
have told me) made a proposal of marriage to Miss Verinder. Here, he saw
his way no doubt--if accepted--to the end of all his money anxieties,
present and future. But, as events actually turned out, what happened?
Miss Verinder refused him.

On the night of the birthday, therefore, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite's
pecuniary position was this. He had three hundred pounds to find on
the twenty-fourth of the month, and twenty thousand pounds to find in
February eighteen hundred and fifty. Failing to raise these sums, at
these times, he was a ruined man.

Under those circumstances, what takes place next?

You exasperate Mr. Candy, the doctor, on the sore subject of his
profession; and he plays you a practical joke, in return, with a dose of
laudanum. He trusts the administration of the dose, prepared in a little
phial, to Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite--who has himself confessed the share he
had in the matter, under circumstances which shall presently be related
to you. Mr. Godfrey is all the readier to enter into the conspiracy,
having himself suffered from your sharp tongue in the course of the
evening. He joins Betteredge in persuading you to drink a little brandy
and water before you go to bed. He privately drops the dose of laudanum
into your cold grog. And you drink the mixture.

Let us now shift the scene, if you please to Mr. Luker's house at
Lambeth. And allow me to remark, by way of preface, that Mr. Bruff and
I, together, have found a means of forcing the money-lender to make
a clean breast of it. We have carefully sifted the statement he has
addressed to us; and here it is at your service.

IV

Late on the evening of Friday, the twenty-third of June ('forty-eight),
Mr. Luker was surprised by a visit from Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. He was
more than surprised, when Mr. Godfrey produced the