of a temporary loan of only (!) twenty thousand pounds, a sensation of nausea completely overpowered him, and the table, the chairs, the iron chest, swam round him like so many ships at sea.  To recover from his sickness, and to curse the banking-house, every member of the same, and his own respectable parent for linking him to it, was one and the same exertion.  To the infinite astonishment of Augustus Theodore, the acquisition of these twenty thousand pounds proved the most amusing and easiest transaction of his life.  Mr Cutbill, the managing partner of the London house, received him with profound respect and pleasure.  He listened most attentively to the stammering request, and put the deputation at his ease at once, by expressing his readiness to comply with Mr Allcraft’s wishes, provided a note of hand, signed by all the partners, and payable in three months, was given as security for the sum required.  Augustus wrote word home to that effect; the note of hand arrived—­the twenty thousand pounds were paid—­the dreaded business was transacted with half the trouble that it generally cost Augustus Theodore to effect the purchase of a pair of gloves.

Mr Bellamy remained at the hall just one week after the receipt of the cash, and then was carried to the north by pressing business.  Before he started he complimented Allcraft upon their success, trusted that they should now go smoothly on, promised to return at the very earliest moment, and gave directions on his route by which all letters of importance might safely reach him.  And Allcraft, relieved for a brief season, indefatigable as ever, strained every nerve and muscle to sustain his credit and increase his gains.  As heretofore, he denied himself all diversion and amusement.  The first at the bank, the last to leave it, he had his eye for ever on its doings.  Visible at all times to the world, and most conspicuous there where the world was pleased to find him, he maintained his reputation as a thorough man of business, and held, with hooks of steel, a confidence as necessary to existence as the vital air around him.  To lose a breath of the public approbation in his present state, were to give up fatally the only stay on which he rested.  Wonderful that, as the prospects of the man grew darker, his courage strengthened, his spirit roused, his industry increased!  And a bitter reflection was it, that reward still came to him—­still a fair return for time and strength expended.  He could not complain of the neglect of mankind, or of the ingratitude of those he served.  In the legitimate transactions of the house, he was a prosperous and a prospering man.  Such, to the outer world, did he appear in all respects, and such he would have been but for the hidden and internal sores already past cure or reparation.  Who had brought them there?  Michael did not ask the question—­yet.  Never did three months pass away so rapidly as those which came between the day of borrowing and the day of paying back those