"To me it is really a matter of life and death, Mr. Gammon. It is one pressing me on, almost to the very verge of despair!"

"Do not, Mr. Aubrey," said Gammon, in a tone and with a look which touched the heart of his agitated companion, "magnify the mischief.

Don't--I beg--imagine your position to be one so hopeless! What is there to stand in the way of an amicable adjustment of these claims? If I had my way, Mr. Aubrey--and if I thought I should not be acting the part of the unjust steward in Scripture--I would write sixty thousand farthings for sixty thousand pounds!"

"You have named the sum for which I believe I am legally liable to Mr.

t.i.tmouse," said Mr. Aubrey, with forced composure; "it is, however, a sum as completely out of my power to pay or secure--or even a quarter of it--as to give him one of the stars."

"I am aware, Mr. Aubrey, that you must have had many calls upon you, which must have temporarily crippled your resources"----

"Temporarily!" echoed Mr. Aubrey, with a sickening smile.

"I devoutly trust that it _is_ only temporary! For your own and family's sake," he added quickly, observing the watchfulness with which his every look and word was regarded by his companion. "Any proposal, Mr. Aubrey,"

he continued with the same apparent kindness of manner, but with serious deliberation, "which you may think proper to make, I am ready--eager--to receive and consider in a liberal spirit. I repeat--If I, only, had to be consulted--you would leave this room with a lightened heart; but to be plain and candid, our client, Mr. t.i.tmouse, is a very difficult person to deal with! I pledge my word of honor to you--[_Oh Gammon!

Gammon! Gammon!_]--that I have repeatedly urged upon Mr. t.i.tmouse to release you from all the rents which had been received by you previously to your having legal notice of the late proceedings." I suppose Gammon felt that this declaration was not received as implicitly as he desired, and had expected; for with a slight stiffness, he added, "I a.s.sure you, sir, that it is a fact. I have always been of opinion that the law is harsh, and even faulty in principle, which, in such a case as yours--where the possessor of an estate, to which he believed himself born, is ousted by a t.i.tle of which he had no previous knowledge, nor MEANS of knowledge"--Gammon uttered this very pointedly, and with his eye fixed searchingly upon that of Mr. Aubrey--"requires him to make good the rents which he had so innocently appropriated to his own use.

That is my _opinion_, though it may be wrong. I am bound to say, however, that as the law now stands--if Mr. t.i.tmouse should, contrary to my advice, determine to stand upon his strict rights"----Gammon paused, shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and looked with melancholy significance at Mr. Aubrey.

"I am entirely at his mercy! that I perfectly understand. I do trust, however, that in the name of our common humanity he will have some consideration for the helpless--the miserable situation in which I am so unexpectedly placed," said Aubrey, with mournful energy. "Never having imagined it necessary to save money"----

"Oh no--nor, with such an income as yours was, to resort, I fear, to any of the ordinary modes of providing against emergencies--by _insurance_ of your life, for instance"--interposed Gammon, sighing.

"No--sir! nothing of the sort"--["Ah!--the deuce you have not!" thought Gammon]--"and I confess--I now bitterly feel--how improvident I have been! My situation is so deplorable and desperate, that disguise would be absurd, even could I stoop to it; and I declare, in the presence of Heaven, Mr. Gammon, that without giving up the little remnant of plate I have preserved, and my books, I am unable to liquidate even the amount of your bill sent in the day before yesterday"--Gammon gazed at Aubrey mournfully, but in silence--"and if my miserable remnant of means _be_ so appropriated, we are _literally beggars_"--he paused, and his voice faltered.

"Indeed--indeed, you distress me beyond measure, Mr. Aubrey," said Gammon, in a low tone.

"If you can but secure me, sir--and that is the object of this intrusion upon you--a merciful interval, to prepare myself for the profession which I have entered--the bar--whatever earnings I might obtain, after leaving a bare maintenance for myself and family, shall be devoted faithfully to liquidate the heavy claims upon me! For myself, Mr.

Gammon, I do not care about living upon bread and water for the next ten years; but there are others"--his voice trembled. "Sir," he suddenly added with almost pa.s.sionate energy, "by every consideration which can influence a gentleman, I conjure you to interfere between me and utter immediate ruin!"

This was the real thrilling language of the heart; but it failed to produce the least impression upon Gammon, in whom it excited only intense chagrin and disappointment. "Oh, that it were but in my power,"

said he, however, with great energy, "to send you out of this room a free man! If I alone were to be consulted," he continued with vivacity, "I would instantly absolve you from all demands--or at least give you your own time, and take no other security than your word and honor!"

"Oh! what a happy--happy man! what a happy family should we be if only"----he could not finish the sentence, for he was greatly moved.

["Here's an infernal business!" thought Gammon to himself, and, bending down his head, he covered his eyes with his hands;--"worse, far worse than I had suspected. I would take five pounds for all _my_ residuary interest in the sixty thousand pounds!! I've not the least doubt that he's speaking the truth. But the _bill_ part of the business is highly unsatisfactory! I should like my friend Quirk to be here just now!

Surely, however, Mr. Aubrey must be able to get security? With such friends and connections as his!--If one could only get one or two of them to join him in a bond for ten thousand pounds--stay--that won't exactly do either--by the way--I _must_ have my thumb upon him!"]

"I am so profoundly affected by the situation in which you are placed, Mr. Aubrey," said Gammon, at length appearing to have subdued his emotion, and feeling it necessary to say something, "that I think I may take upon myself to say the instructions which we have received _shall not_ be acted upon, come what may. Those must be really monsters, not men, Mr. Aubrey, who could press upon one in your position; and that such should be attempted by one who has succeeded to your former splendid advantages, is inconceivably shocking. Mr. Aubrey, _you shall not be crushed_--indeed you shall not, so long as I am a member--possibly not the least influential one--of this firm, and have any weight with your formidable creditor, Mr. t.i.tmouse. I cannot do justice to my desire to shelter you and yours, Mr. Aubrey, from the storm you dread so justly!" There was a warmth, an energy in Gammon's manner, while saying all this, which cheered the drooping heart of his wretched visitor. "What I am about to say, Mr. Aubrey, is in complete confidence," continued Gammon, in a low tone. Mr. Aubrey bowed, with a little anxious excitement in his manner. "May I rely implicitly upon your honor and secrecy?"

"Most implicitly, sir. What you desire me to keep within my own breast, no one upon earth shall know from _me_."

"There are serious difficulties in the way of serving you. Mr. t.i.tmouse is a weak and inexperienced young man, naturally excited to a great pitch by his present elevation, and already embarra.s.sed for want of ready money. You may imagine, sir, that his liabilities to us are of considerable magnitude. You would hardly credit, Mr. Aubrey, the amount of mere money out of pocket for which he stands indebted to us; our outlay during the last two years having considerably crippled our own pecuniary resources in an extensive practice like ours, and driven us to incur responsibilities which are beginning to occasion us personally considerable anxiety. Of course, Mr. Aubrey, we must look to Mr.

t.i.tmouse to be speedily reimbursed: he insists upon our immediately calling upon you; and I have reason to suspect that he has at his elbow one or two very heartless advisers, who have suggested this to him; for he follows it most pertinaciously. That he cannot meet the liabilities I have alluded to out of his annual income, without swallowing it up entirely for eighteen months or two years, is certain. I regret to say that Mr. Quirk and Mr. Snap encourage his disposition to press you;--do not be alarmed, my dear sir!" he continued, observing the deadly paleness of Mr. Aubrey, whose eye was riveted upon that of Gammon; "for I declare that _I will_ stand between you and them; and it is enough for me to say, moreover, that I have the _power_ of doing so. I am--but this is committed specially and sacredly to your confidence--_the only person living who happens to possess the means of controlling Mr. t.i.tmouse_; and since you have entered this room, I have resolved to _exercise_ my powers. Now, bearing in mind that I have no legal authority from him, and am, at the same time, only one of a firm, and a.s.suring you that I am entailing a serious personal responsibility upon myself in what I am doing, let me throw out for your consideration my general notion of what I think ought to be done--merely my off-hand notion."

"I perfectly understand you, sir--and am penetrated by a sense of grat.i.tude! I listen to you with inexpressible anxiety," said Mr. Aubrey.

"Had I been consulted," continued Mr. Gammon, "we should have proposed to you, with reference to our bill, (which I frankly acknowledge contains a much more liberal entry than would probably be allowed on taxation, but with equal truth I declare that it is none of _my_ doing,")--Gammon knew the credit for candor which this acknowledgment of a fact, of which Messrs. Runnington would quickly apprise Mr. Aubrey after examining the bill, was likely to obtain for him with Mr.

Aubrey--"I say, I should have _proposed_ to you, in the first instance, the payment of our bill by easy instalments, during the next three or four years, provided you could have obtained partial security. But I am only one of three, and I know the determination of Mr. Quirk and Mr.

Snap, not to listen to any proposal with reference to the mesne profits which is not based upon--in short, they say, _the bill must be paid at once without being looked into_--I mean," he added quickly, "without its being subjected to the hara.s.sing and protracted scrutiny which a distrustful, an ungrateful client, or unreasonable opponent, has it too frequently in his power to inflict. Oh, let me disguise nothing from you, my dear sir, in a conversation of this kind between two gentlemen!"

continued Gammon, with an admirable air of frankness, for he perceived that Mr. Aubrey looked slightly staggered. "I am ashamed to acknowledge that our bill does contain exorbitant entries--entries which have led to very frequent and fierce disputes between me and my partners. But _what is to be done_? Mr. Quirk is--to be completely candid with you--the moneyed man of the firm; and if you were but to glance at the articles of our partnership"--Gammon shrugged his shoulders and sighed--"you would see the tyrannical extent of power over us which he has thereby secured! You observe how candid I am--perhaps foolishly so."

["I've not quite mastered him--I can tell it by his eye"--thought Gammon--"is this a game of chess between us? I wonder whether, after all, Messrs. Runnington are aware of his being here--knowing and trusting to his ability--and have put him thoroughly on his guard? He is checking strong feelings incessantly, and evidently weighing every word I utter. Misery has sharpened faculties naturally acute."]

"Pray do not say so, Mr. Gammon, I fully appreciate your motives. I am devoured with anxiety for an intimation of the nature of the terms which you were about, so kindly, to specify."

"_Specify_, Mr. Aubrey, is perhaps rather too strong a term--but to proceed. Supposing the preliminary matter which I have alluded to satisfactorily arranged, I am disposed to say, that if you could find security for the payment of the sum of ten thousand pounds within a year, or a year and a half"--[Mr. Aubrey's teeth almost chattered at the mention of it]--"I--I--that is, _my_ impression is--but--I repeat--it is only _mine_"--added Gammon, earnestly--"that the rest should be left to your own honor, giving at the same time a personal undertaking to pay at a future--a very distant day--in the manner most convenient to yourself--the sum of ten thousand pounds more--making in all only one-third of the sum due from you; and receiving an absolute release from Mr. t.i.tmouse in respect of the remaining two-thirds, namely, forty thousand pounds."

Mr. Aubrey listened to all this with his feelings and faculties strung to the utmost pitch of intensity; and when Gammon had ceased, experienced a transient sense, as if the fearful mountain which had pressed so long on his heart were moving.

"Have I made myself intelligible, Mr. Aubrey?" inquired Gammon, kindly, but very gravely.

"Perfectly--but I feel so oppressed and overwhelmed with the magnitude of the topics we are discussing, that I scarcely at present appreciate the position in which you would place me. I must throw myself, Mr.

Gammon, entirely upon your indulgence!"

Gammon looked a little disappointed.

"I can imagine your feelings, sir," said he, as, thrusting into a heap the papers lying on the table, he threw them into a drawer, and then took a sheet of paper and a pencil; and while he made a few memoranda of the arrangement which he had been mentioning, he continued--"You see--the grand result of what I have been hastily sketching off is--to give you ample time to pay the amount which I have named, and to relieve you, at once, _absolutely_ from no less a sum than FORTY THOUSAND POUNDS," said he, with emphasis and deliberation, "for which--and with interest--you will otherwise remain liable to the day of your death;--there can be no escape," he continued with pointed significance of manner--"except, perhaps, into banishment, which, with your feelings, would be worse than death--for it would--of course--be a _dishonorable_ exile--to avoid just liabilities;--and those who bear your name would, in such an"----

"Pray, sir, be silent!" exclaimed Mr. Aubrey, in a tone and manner which electrified Gammon, who started in his chair. Mr. Aubrey's face was whitened; his eye glanced lightning at his companion. Dagon-like, Gammon had put forth his hand and touched the ark of Aubrey's honor. Gammon lost his color, and for, perhaps, the first time in his life, quailed before the majesty of man; 'twas also the majesty of suffering; for he had been torturing a n.o.ble nature. Neither of them spoke for some time--Mr. Aubrey continuing highly excited--Gammon gazing at him with unfeigned amazement. The paper which he held in his hand rustled, and he was obliged to lay it down on his lap, lest Mr. Aubrey should notice this evidence of his agitation.

"I am guilty of great weakness, sir," said at length Mr. Aubrey--his excitement only a little abated. He stood erect, and spoke with stern precision; "but you, perhaps unconsciously, provoked the display of it.

Sir, I am ruined; I am a beggar: we are all ruined; we are all beggars: it is the ordering of G.o.d, and I bow to it. But do you presume, sir, to think that at last my HONOR is in danger? and consider it necessary, as if you were warning one whom you saw about to become a criminal, to expatiate on the nature of the meditated act by which I am to disgrace myself and my family?" Here _that family_ seemed suddenly standing around him: his lip quivered; his eyes filled; he ceased speaking; and trembled with excessive emotion.

"This is a sally equally unexpected, Mr. Aubrey, and, permit me to add, unwarrantable," said Gammon, calmly, having recovered his self-possession. "You have entirely misunderstood me, sir; or I have ill-explained myself. Your evident emotion and distress touch my very soul, Mr. Aubrey." Gammon's voice trembled. "Suffer me to tell you--unmoved by your violent rebuke--that I feel an inexpressible respect and admiration for you, and am miserable at the thought of one word of mine having occasioned you an instant's uneasiness." When a generous nature is thus treated, it is apt to feel an excessive contrition for any fault or extravagance which it may have committed--an excessive appreciation of the pain which it may have inflicted on another. Thus it was, that by the time Gammon had done speaking, Mr.

Aubrey felt ashamed and mortified at himself, and conceived an admiration of the dignified forbearance of Gammon, which quickly heightened into respect for his general character as it appeared to Aubrey, and fervent grat.i.tude for the disposition which he had evinced, from first to last, so disinterestedly to serve a ruined man. He seemed now to view all that Gammon had proposed in quite a new light--through quite another medium; and his excited _feelings_ were in some danger of disturbing his _judgment_.

"As I am a man of business, Mr. Aubrey," said Gammon, shortly afterwards, with a very captivating smile--how frank and forgiving seeming his temper, to Aubrey!--"and this is a _place_ for business, shall we resume our conversation? With reference to the first ten thousand pounds, it can be a matter of future arrangement as to the mode of securing its payment; and as for the remaining ten thousand, if I were not afraid of rendering myself personally liable to Mr. t.i.tmouse for neglecting my professional duty to him, I should be content with your verbal promise--your mere word of honor, to pay it, as and when you conveniently could. But in justice to myself, I really must take a _show_ of security from you. Say, for instance, two promissory notes, for 5,000 each, payable to Mr. t.i.tmouse. You may really regard them as matters of mere form; for, when you shall have given them to me, they will be deposited _there_," (pointing to an iron safe,) "and not again be heard of until you may have thought proper to inquire for them. The influence which I happen to have obtained over Mr. t.i.tmouse, you may rely upon my exercising with some energy, if ever he should be disposed to press you for payment of either of the instruments I have mentioned.

I tell you candidly that they must be _negotiable_ in point of form; but I a.s.sure you, as sincerely, that I will not permit them to be negotiated. _Now_, may I venture to hope that we understand each other?"

added Gammon, with a cheerful air; "and that this arrangement, if I shall be only able to carry it into effect, is a sufficient evidence of my desire to serve you, and will relieve you from an immense load of anxiety and liability?"

"An immense--a crushing load, indeed, sir, if Providence shall in any manner (to me at present undiscoverable) enable me to perform _my_ part of the arrangement, and if _you_ have but power to carry your views into effect," replied Mr. Aubrey, sighing heavily, but with a look of grat.i.tude.

"Leave that to _me_, Mr. Aubrey; I will undertake to do it; I will move heaven and earth to do it--and the more eagerly, that I may thereby hope to establish a kind of set-off against the misery and loss which my professional exertions have unfortunately contributed to occasion you--and your honored family!"

"I feel deeply sensible of your very great--your unexpected kindness, Mr. Gammon; but still, the arrangement suggested is one which occasions me dreadful anxiety as to my being ever able to carry out _my_ part of it."

"Never, never despair, Mr. Aubrey! Heaven helps those who help themselves; and I really imagine I see your powerful energies already beginning to surmount your prodigious difficulties! When you shall have slept over the matter, you will feel the full relief which this proposed arrangement is so calculated to afford your spirits. Of course, too, you will lose no time in communicating to Messrs. Runnington the nature of the proposal. I can predict that they will be not a little disposed to urge upon you its completion. I cannot, however, help once more reminding you, in justice to myself, Mr. Aubrey, that it is _but_ a proposition, in making which, I hope it will not prove that I have been carried away by my feelings much further than my duty to my client or his interests "----

Mr. Aubrey was afraid to hear him finish the sentence, lest the faint dawn of hope should disappear from the dark and rough surface of the sea of trouble upon which he was being tossed. "I _will_ consult, as you suggest, sir, my experienced and honorable professional advisers; and am strongly inclined to believe that they will feel as you predict. I am of course bound to defer to _them_,"----

"Oh, certainly! certainly! I am very strict in the observance of professional etiquette, Mr. Aubrey, I a.s.sure you; and should not think of going on with this arrangement, except with their concurrence, acting on your behalf. One thing I have to beg, Mr. Aubrey, that either you or they will communicate the result of your deliberations to _me_, personally. I am very desirous that the suggested compromise should be broken to my partners and our client by _me._--By the way, if you will favor me with your address, I will make a point of calling at your house, either late in the evening or early in the morning."

[As if Messrs. Quirk, Gammon, and Snap had not kept eagle eyes upon his every movement since quitting Yatton, with a view to any sudden application for a writ of _Ne Exeas_, which a suspicious approach of his towards the sea-coast might render necessary!]

"I am infinitely obliged to you, sir--but it would be far more convenient for both of us, if you could drop me a line, or favor me with a call at Mr. Weasel's, in Pomegranate Court in the Temple."

Gammon blushed scarlet: but for this accidental mention of the name of Mr. Weasel, who was one of the pleaders occasionally employed by Messrs.

Quirk, Gammon, and Snap in heavy matters--in all probability Mr. Aubrey might, within a day or two's time, have had to exercise his faculties, if so disposed, upon a declaration of Trespa.s.s for Mesne Profits, in a cause of "t.i.tMOUSE _v._ AUBREY!"

"As you choose, Mr. Aubrey," replied Gammon, with difficulty concealing his feelings of pique and disappointment at losing the opportunity of a _personal introduction by Mr. Aubrey to his family_. After a few words of general conversation, Gammon inquiring how Mr. Aubrey liked his new profession, and a.s.suring him, in an emphatic manner, that he might rely upon being supported, from the moment of his being called to the bar, by almost all the common-law business of the firm of "Quirk, Gammon, and Snap"--they parted. It had been to Mr. Aubrey a memorable interview--and to Gammon a somewhat arduous affair, taxing to an unusual extent his great powers of self-command, and of dissimulation. As soon as he was left alone, his thoughts instantly recurred to Aubrey's singular burst of hauteur and indignation. Gammon had a stinging sense of submission to superior energy--and felt indignant with himself for not having at the moment resented it. Setting aside this source of exquisite irritation to the feelings of a proud man, he felt a depressing consciousness that he had not met with his usual success in his recent encounter with Mr.