men know where to get money when they really need it, and least of all they who do not know its value when they have it. But what is your immediate occasion for that sum ?"

"I think I could better myself in such a way," replied Andrew, "as would enable me to get on in the world."

"It is a large amount.”

"It is," said Andrew: "and yet there are some men in my situation who would know how to make it ten times as much."

"Do you want to stock your farm ?” inquired the Baronet, not seeming to notice the last observation.

"No; I have thrown away too many hundreds upon that already. I should remove with my family from this part of the country, and try something fresh which I have in view in Wales. I have a brother living there, who is well to do; and who would assist me a little if he saw I was able to assist myself.”

"You know, Mayfield," said the Baronet, "that I have been your friend on more than one occasion, and that I promised you, some

your welfare.

years ago, I would do what I could to promote But it is folly, not kindness, to supply a man with the means of doing well, who has not prudence enough to make them answer their object."

"Very true," replied Andrew; "but they say it is a long lane which has no turning. I have certainly been unfortunate hitherto perhaps all my good luck is to come; for when things are at the worst they must mend, if they change at all.”

"And you really think," continued Sir Everton," that a hundred pounds would enable you to set up in Wales, in some new way of life by which you could maintain your family?"

"I do," answered Andrew; "added to what I could get for the stock of all kinds now on my farm."

"But that," rejoined the Baronet, "would hardly do more, I imagine, than cover your arrears of rent, and indemnify me for letting you throw it up without the usual notice."

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"I was in hopes," said Andrew, "you would

have allowed me to give you a bond for all those matters, which I could pay when I am a little better off."

"Well," exclaimed the Baronet, "I'll think of it; but mind, if I do this I expect it will be the last time I am called upon to assist you." "I will not trouble you again, depend upon it," rejoined Andrew. "But I must make bold to add, that the money will be of no use unless I have it directly."

"Very well. Come down to the Hall tomorrow morning, and I will talk with you further upon the subject."

Mayfield bowed, and left the room. When he was gone, Lady Azledine, who had been a silent, though not an inattentive or unmoved, observer of this scene between Andrew and Sir Everton, addressed her husband.

"That man," said she, "is a thoroughpaced knave, if ever there existed one!"

"I am afraid he is, my dear," replied Sir Everton; and if I can buy him off my estate for a hundred pounds, I shall consider the money well laid out."

"Were you to put him in gaol for what he already owes you," rejoined her ladyship, “I should think you acted much more wisely."

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Perhaps so," said the Baronet calmly, but evidently nettled.

"It is a mystery to me what can be your reason for submitting to his insolent extortions."

"Reason, my dear," answered Sir Everton sarcastically, "is very often a mystery to you."

Lady Frances reddened at this retort; but disdaining to bandy taunts, she coldly remarked, that "if she had been as little studious of his feelings as he sometimes was of hers, she might have abstained from calling that a mystery which in truth was none.”

"Then why affect to seek what you profess to know?" replied the Baronet.

"Rather say," answered her ladyship," why seek to know, with certainty, circumstances which present themselves to my mind in a less offensive shape while I can invest them with doubt."

"Whichever way it pleases you," said the

Baronet. "This is no new subject of altercation between us; but as I have nothing to add to former explanations or assurances, it must necessarily degenerate into idle bickering whenever it is revived."

"You mistake me sadly," rejoined Lady Frances. "It is not the past I would revive, but the future I would avert. Already tongues are busy with your motives for befriending this man. What will they say when this fresh evidence of your weakness is known ?" "My weakness!"

"What but weakness makes you thus his prey ?"

Really," said the Baronet ironically, "it is my turn now to talk of mystery. I know not what your words aim at."

"If that insolent rustic," added her ladyship, "be the master of any secret whose disclosure would unveil some indiscretion of your life, to what humiliation could his treachery expose you half so intolerable, as that which you undergo when you stand in his presence as you did this instant? I marked the vulgar