ey in his purse. But we may suppose that Fate did
not intend the ruin of Tappitt, seeing that she did not make him mad
enough to seek the counsels of Sharpit and Longfite. Fate only made
him very cross and unpleasant in the bosom of his family. Looking out
himself for some mode of escape from this terrible enemy that had
come upon him, he preferred the raising of the sum of money which
would be necessary to buy off Rowan altogether. Rowan had demanded
ten thousand pounds, but Tappitt still thought that seven, or, at any
rate, eight thousand would do it.

"I don't think he'll take less than ten," said Honyman, "because his
share is really worth as much as that."

This was very provoking; and who can wonder that Tappitt was not
pleasant company in his own house?

On the day after Mrs. Ray's visit to Exeter, Tappitt, as was now his
almost daily practice, made his way into Mr. Honyman's little back
room, and sat there with his hat on, discussing his affairs.

"I find that Mr. Rowan has bought those cottages of the widow Ray's,"
said Honyman.

"Nonsense!" shouted Tappitt, as though such a purchase on Rowan's
part was a new injury done to himself.

"Oh, but he has," said Honyman. "There's not a doubt in life about
it. If he does mean to build a new brewery, it wouldn't be a bad
place. You see it's out of the thoroughfare of the town, and yet, as
one may say, within a stone's throw of the High Street."

I will not repeat Mr. Tappitt's exclamation as he listened to these
suggestions of his lawyer, but it was of a nature to show that he had
not heard the news with indifference.

"You see he's such a fellow that you don't know where to have him,"
continued Honyman. "It's not only that he don't mind ruining you, but
he don't mind ruining himself either."

"I don't believe he's got anything to lose."

"Ah! that's where you're wrong. He has paid ready money for this bit
of land to begin with, or Goodall would never have let him have it.
Goodall knows what he's about as well as any man."

"And do you mean to tell me that he's going to put up buildings there
at once?" And Tappitt's face as he asked the question would have
softened the heart of any ordinary lawyer. But Honyman was one whom
nothing could harden and nothing soften.

"I don't know what he's going to put up, Mr. Tappitt, and I don't
know when. But I know this well enough; that when a man buys little
bits of property about a place it shows that he means to do