d no more, and if you'll promise to be paying me soon.'

'One thousand six hundred, mother, I must have that at least.'

It would be waste of time to write the reasons urged by Howel to induce
his mother to advance him this money; but after some hours of entreaty,
and a promise from him that he would repay it shortly, she consented to
write the necessary cheque for that sum. She insisted upon the business
being managed through Mr Rice Rice, her attorney at home, and wrote to
him to empower him to raise it as he best could for her son at once.

As she was a poor scribe, and a still worse orthographer, Howel
superintended the letter, and when it was written said he would enclose
and post it. He was most particular in telling her where and how to
write the figures; and before the ink was dry begged her to go to a
davenport, which stood at the other end of the room, for a stamp.

No sooner was her back turned towards him, than with the same pen and
ink he made the straight figure _one_ into a _four_, and in the cheque
which she had written, as well as in the accompanying letter, four
thousand six hundred pounds held the place that one thousand six hundred
had held when Mrs Griffith Jenkins left the table to go to the
davenport.

If Howel trembled, or if his conscience smote him when he did this
dreadful deed, he did not let his mother see it.

'Perhaps, after all, you had better direct the letter, mother,' he said,
as he finished sealing it. 'If I do it it will look as if I thought you
couldn't write, and you really write just as well as any other lady of
your age. I am really very much obliged to you.'

When Howel carried the letter out of the room, and went for a few
moments into another, he said to himself, 'I can pay the whole back
after the races, and manage so as to prevent her knowing anything about
it. And if the worst come to the worst, I must tell her what I did. She
won't expose me; it will be a furious quarrel, and then all will be
over. We must keep her here for a long time, and I must get hold of her
letters first and read them to her, and alter them if necessary. Now I
must look about for another thousand pounds.'

In due course of time the money was procured for Mrs Jenkins, and paid
into a London bank. Howel took possession of the letter of advice
concerning it, and told his mother he had opened it because she was out
when it arrived, and he had not a moment to lose in obtaining the money
from the b