on the door. "If ever it seems
good to me," he said, "I consider that by giving you due notice I
absolve myself from my promise."

"You would not do anything so foolish."

"Still I reserve myself the right of doing so," said Tom, and went off
with a heavy heart to his day's work.

"Everything is clear for you now," the old man said to his son
triumphantly. "There's no chance of interference, and the girl is in
the very humour to be won. I flatter myself that it has been managed
with tact. Remember that all is at stake, and go in and win."

"I shall go in," said Ezra "and I think the chances are that I shall
win too."

At which reassuring speech the old man laughed, and slapped his son
approvingly upon the shoulder.

CHAPTER XXVI.

BREAKING GROUND.

In spite of John Girdlestone's temporary satisfaction and the stoical
face which he presented to the world, it is probable that in the whole
of London there was no more unhappy and heart-weary man. The long fight
against impending misfortune had shattered his iron constitution and
weakened him both in body and in mind. It was remarked upon 'Change how
much he had aged of late, and moralists commented upon the vanity and
inefficacy of the wealth which could not smooth the wrinkles from the
great trader's haggard visage. He was surprised himself when he looked
in the glass at the change which had come over him. "Never mind," he
would say in his dogged heart a hundred times a day, "they can't beat
me. Do what they will, they can't beat me." This was the one thought
which sustained and consoled him. The preservation of his commercial
credit had become the aim and object of his life, to which there was
nothing that he was not prepared to sacrifice.

His cunningly devised speculation in diamonds had failed, but this
failure had been due to an accident which could neither have been
foreseen nor remedied. To carry out this scheme he had, as we have
seen, been obliged to borrow money, which had now to be repaid. This he
had managed to do, more or less completely, by the sale of the stones
which Ezra had brought home, supplemented by the recent profits of the
firm. There was still the original deficit to be faced, and John
Girdlestone knew that though a settlement might be postponed from month
to month, still the day must come, and come soon, when his debts must be
met, or his inability to meet them become apparent to the whole world.
Should Ezra be succ