tion! Still, were I to do so, one effect, at least, it would haveto satisfy you of my honourable and disinterested motives in the offer which I presumed to make Miss Aubrey." "Well, sir,” replied Mr Aubrey, with a melancholy air, and sighing deeply, "I can only place my trust in Providence—and I do. I have suffered much already; and if it be the will of Heaven that I should suffer more, I hope it will be proved that I have not suffered already—in vain!” "Mr Aubrey," said Gammon, gazing at him with a brightening eye, "my very soul owns the sublime presence of VIRTUE, in your person! It is exalting—it is ennobling-merely to be permitted to witness so heroic an example of constancy as you exhibit!". -He paused, and for some moments there was silence-"You do not distrust me, Mr Aubrey ?" said Gammon, at length, with a confident air. 66 No, Mr Gammon!” replied Mr Aubrey, eyeing him stead fastly. "I'm not aware that I ever had any reason for doing so." Shortly afterwards he took his departure; and as he bent his steps slowly, and with thoughtful air, towards the Temple, he saw one or two things, on his own part, during his interview with Gammon, to regret-namely, his sternness and pride; but nothing on the part of Gammon, that had not been admirable. Could Mr Aubrey, however, but have seen the satanic smile which settled upon Mr Gammon's features, as soon as, after cordially shaking his hand, he calmly shut the door upon Mr Aubrey, it might have occasioned some few misgivings as to Mr Gammon's sincerity. He resumed his seat, and meditated upon their recent interview. Almost the first glance which he had caught of Mr Aubrey's countenance, and the very first tones of his voice which had fallen on Gammon's ear, had inspired him with a deadly animosity against poor Aubrey, whose pride Gammon resolved to trample upon and crush into the dust. He was acquainted with the state of Aubrey's little finances, almost to a pound; for Aubrey had, under the circumstances, felt it even a duty to be frank with him upon that subject. He turned over in his mind, with great anxiety, the matter of the two promissory notes for five thousand pounds each, which he held in his hands and which would be the best mode of setting into motion, but with the hands of another, those two dreadful instruments of torture and oppression-which, judiciously applied, might have the effect of humbling the pride and breaking the determination of Aubrey and of his sister. Long he considered the subject, in every point of view; and at length-" Ay, that will do!" said he to himself aloud; sighed, smiled, and gently tapped his fingers upon his ample forehead. Shortly afterwards, having ordered his laundress to take away the breakfast things, he took pen, ink, and paper, and sketched off the following draft of a letter, to be copied by Mr Quirk, and signed in the name of the firm, and sent, Gammon finally determined, early in the ensuing week : Saffron Hill, 9th July 18-. "DEAR SIR,-Owing to a most serious and unexpected pecuniary outlay which we are called upon to make, we feel ourselves compelled to avail ourselves of whatever resources lie within our reach. Having been disappointed in several quarters, we are obliged to remind you of the heavy balance we have against you of £1446, 14s. 6d. You must be aware of the length of time during which it has been standing; and trust you will forgive us if we at length apprise you that it is absolutely impossible for us to allow of any more delay. Unless, therefore, the whole of the above balance, or at least £1000 of it, be paid within three days of the date hereof, we regret to inform you we have finally made up our minds to let the law take its usual course. We feel the less hesitation in saying thus much, because we are persuaded that, with a little exertion, you might long ago have liquidated this heavy balance, or the greater part thereof." (Mr Gammon wrote as nearly in the peculiar style of Mr Quirk as he could.) "In writing thus, Messrs Quirk and Snap feel it only due to their partner, Mr Gammon, to add that he is no party to this application. Messrs Q. and S. have felt, however, in making it, that the interests of the firm have already suffered long enough, through their deference to the personal wishes and feelings of one of the members of the firm; and but for whom, their heavy balance would have been called for long ago, and, no doubt, in due course discharged. "We regret being unable to vary or depart from the determination above expressed; and most sincerely hope your resources are of that nature that we shall be spared the unpleasantness of commencing legal proceedings. "And we remain, dear sir, "QUIRK, GAMMON, & SNAP. "CHARLES AUBREY, Esquire, "Vivian Street." Exactly on the seventh day from that on which Mr Gammon had made his ill-omened advances towards Miss Aubrey, did the above dreadful and heartless letter reach its destination-being delivered into Mr Aubrey's hands while he was intently perusing a very heavy set of papers, which, at his request, Mr Weasel had allowed him to take home. The painful scene which ensued I shall spare the reader-only mentioning that poor Miss Aubrey became almost frantic, treating herself as the sole occasion of this disaster. That very morning, at breakfast, had he been talking of selling out, of their precious remnant in the funds, the sum of £105, to enable him to become a pupil with Mr Crystal, at the suggestion of the Attorney-General. What was to be done in this fearful emergency none of them knew-except consenting to an immediate sale of all their plate, books, and furniture. Their affliction, indeed, knew no bounds. Even Mr Aubrey, though for a long time he bore up heroically, was at length overcome by the agonies of the dear beings whose ruin was involved in his own. Had not Gammon been prompt in his vengeance? So thought they all. What was to be done? A word will suffice to explain Mr Aubrey's position fully. It will be recollected, that about a twelvemonth before, he had been left in possession of a balance of £1063, after paying the sum of £4000 to Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, Messrs Runnington, and Mr Parkinson, VOL. III. M in the way which has been already mentioned. Since then, by his incessant exertions, he had realized the sum of £150 by his contributions to literary journals; and, by means of a severe and systematic economy, this sum, together with about £200 taken from his store of £1063, had sufficed to cover their whole year's expenditure. 'Twas impossible to carry economy further than they did, without, poor souls, positive injury to their health, and stinting the little children, as Mr and Mrs Aubrey often said to each other when alone, with tears and sighs of anguish. Alas! misfortune followed him like a bloodhound, let him turn his steps whithersoever he might! Naturally anxious to make the most of his little store of £1063, so long as any considerable portion of it could be spared from their immediate personal necessities, he looked about in all directions for some safe and profitable investment, which might produce him a little more income than could be derived from the funds. He cautiously avoided having the slightest connexion with any of the innumerable joint-stock speculations then afloat, and of which he saw distinctly the mischievous and ruinous tendency; and this, moreover, in spite of the artful occasional representations of Mr Gammon. Having consulted his banker, and also a member of the House of Commons-one of the city members—a man of immense wealth, and great mercantile experience and sagacity, and with whom he had been intimate while in the House-confirmed by their approval, and also that of Mr Weasel and Messrs Runnington, all of whom poor Aubrey anxiously consulted concerning the disposal of this his little ALL; about six weeks after the period of his settlement with Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, he invested five hundred pounds in the purchase of a particular foreign stock. Safe and promising as it appeared, however, at the very moment when it was in the highest repute, with capitalists of all descriptions both at home and abroad— from scarce any assignable reason, but forming one of the many unaccountable instances of fluctuation to which property of that kind is proverbially liable-Aubrey had hardly held his scrip for a month, when-alas!-to his dismay, he found the stock falling-falling-falling-down, down, down, went, till his scrip was so much waste paper! His loss was irretrievable. The wealthy member whom he had consulted, lost nearly one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, and was driven to the very verge of ruin. Mr Weasel even-caution personified, in dealing with the little accumulation of his hard earnings-lost upwards of a thousand pounds; and Mr Runnington, about double that sum. It required a great stretch of fortitude on the part of Mr Aubrey to sustain this severe and sudden blow with any thing like equanimity.-You should have seen and heard Mrs Aubrey and Miss Aubrey, on that occasion, in order fully to appreciate the rich and melting tenderness of woman's love, sympathy, and fortitude. This catastrophe—for surely such it was—had left him about £350 only in the funds, and in his banker's hands a little balance of some fifty or sixty pounds to meet his current expenses. The above amount, at the time when Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap's letter reached him, had been necessarily diminished to about £290; which was positively all the money he had in the world, to save himself, and those dependent on him, from absolute destitution. Yet he was now peremptorily called upon, within three days' time, to pay the sum of £1446, 14s. 6d. He hurried off, early the next morning, in consternation, to Messrs Runnington. Mr Runnington, with a heavy heart and a gloomy countenance, set off instantly, alone, to the office of Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap. He saw Mr Gammon, who told him, with a well-dissembled air of disgust, to go in to Mr Quirk, or Mr Snap. He did so, and found them inexorable. Mr Quirk doggedly told Mr Runnington that he had been out of pocket long enough, and would not be fooled by one of his own partners any longer. Mr Runnington quitted them, fairly at his wits' end; and, on his return, told Mr Aubrey, whom he had left at his office, that he had done, and could do, “nothing with the vultures of Saffron Hill." Mr Runnington felt that his unhappy client, Mr Aubrey, was far too critically situated with respect to Messrs Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, to admit of his threatening, on Mr Aubrey's behalf, to refer their exorbitant and monstrous bill to taxation. He knew not, in fact, what suggestion to offer-what scheme to devise-to extricate |