"that your wife's fortune
has not been settled upon herself?"

"Of course it has been settled upon herself; that is, it is entirely her
own--you know the Colonel has managed all the business, he understands
it better than we do."

"Do you say that your wife's money is not vested in the hands of
trustees, and for her benefit?"

"My father is one of the trustees. I tell you he manages the whole
thing. What is his property is mine and ever has been; and I might draw
upon him as much as I liked: and you know it's five times as great as
my wife's. What is his is ours, and what is ours is his, of course; for
instance, the India Stock, which poor Uncle James left, that now stands
in the Colonel's name. He wants to be a Director: he will be at the
next election--he must have a certain quantity of India Stock, don't you
see?"

"My dear fellow, is there then no settlement made upon your wife at
all?"

"You needn't look so frightened," says Clive. "I made a settlement on
her: with all my worldly goods I did her endow three thousand three
hundred and thirty-three pounds six and eightpence, which my father sent
over from India to my uncle, years ago, when I came home."

I might well indeed be aghast at this news, and had yet further
intelligence from Clive, which by no means contributed to lessen my
anxiety. This worthy old Colonel, who fancied himself to be so clever a
man of business, chose to conduct it in utter ignorance and defiance of
law. If anything happened to the Bundelcund Bank, it was clear that not
only every shilling of his own property, but every farthing bequeathed
to Rosa Mackenzie would be lost; only his retiring pension, which was
luckily considerable, and the hundred pounds a year which Clive had
settled on his wife, would be saved out of the ruin.

And now Clive confided to me his own serious doubts and misgivings
regarding the prosperity of the Bank itself. He did not know why, but he
could not help fancying that things were going wrong. Those partners
who had come home, having sold out of the Bank, and living in England so
splendidly, why had they quitted it? The Colonel said it was a proof of
the prosperity of the company, that so many gentlemen were enriched who
had taken shares in it. "But when I asked my father," Clive continued,
"why he did not himself withdraw, the dear old Colonel's countenance
fell: he told me such things were not to be done every day; and ended,
as usual, by saying that I do