ase--"Sir Murray Gernon. Ah! let me see; there
was a screw loose there, if I recollect right, years ago. Rich family,
though--very. Young lady's mamma bolted, I think; but that don't matter
to you. Yes, that will do, Viscount--that will do. I think I'll wait."

"And you will advance me what I require?" said his lordship, eagerly,
forgetting all humiliation in his brightened prospects.

"In reason, yes," said the Jew, with a mocking smile once more
overspreading his face; "but I shall not do it for nothing, my Lord
Viscount Maudlaine--I shall not do it for nothing."

"No," muttered the young man, "I know that."

"It's quite possible that I may go so far as to make my own terms," said
the Jew, with a grin. "But I'll leave you, now, to think over the
matter; and if you want any little help, of course you'll come to my
chambers, where we can renew one of the bills."

"Confound the bills!" cried the young man, angrily; "I must have a
cheque for some hard cash to go on with."

"Very good. Come to me, then, my lord," said the Jew, all suavity once
more. "Excuse me for hurrying away, but it is for your sake. It is not
seemly to have Sheriffs' officers waiting opposite to an hotel. Good
morning, my lord!"

"Good morning!" said the Viscount, sulkily.

"You shall fly a little longer, my fine bird--just a little longer!"
said Mr Joshua Braham, as he went out; "but it shall be just as long as
I like, and with a string tied to your leg--a string, my fine fellow, of
which I hold the end?"

Book 2, Chapter VII.

IN PERIL.

"It is of no use," said Brace Norton, one day, when he had been home
about a month, "I can't fight against fate. I vowed that I'd think no
more about her, and I've thought about nothing else ever since. I go
out very seldom, but when I do, I always seem to meet her. I've heard a
good deal of milk-and-sugar talk about love; and if this is what is
called love, all I can say is that it's worse than mast-heading. I
can't help it--I can't keep free of it! What in the world did I get
looking at her for, as I did, that day coming home? Brace Norton--Brace
Norton, I'm afraid that you are a great ass!"

He sat thinking for awhile, trying to be light-hearted, and to sweep his
troubles away, but he soon owned to himself that it was no laughing
matter.

"Heaven help me!" he groaned, "for a miserable, unhappy wretch--one who
seems fated to make those about him suffer! It seems almost as if I
were