“Your worthy father would not frown upon my suit.”

“Perhaps not.  But he would never urge me to encourage a suitor whom I could not love.  I am very young, Mr. Godfrey, too young to enter into any serious engagements.  I esteem you and your cousin, but if you persist in talking to me in this strain, it will destroy our friendship.  If you really feel any regard for me, never wound my feelings by speaking to me on this subject again.”

As Juliet ran forward to meet her father, she felt like a bird escaped out of the snare of the fowler, while Godfrey, humbled and mortified, muttered to himself, “The deuce take these very clever girls; they lecture us like parsons, and talk like books.”

“Why, Julee, love, how you have painted your cheeks,” cried the delighted old man, catching her in his arms, and imprinting a very audible kiss upon her white forehead.  “What has Mr. Godfrey been saying to you?”

“Miss Juliet will not listen to anything that I can say to her,” said Godfrey gloomily.

“Pshaw!” returned the old man.  “A lover must look out for squalls; his bark is seldom destined to sail upon a smooth sea.  If she will not go ahead against wind and tide, you must try her upon another tack.”

He turned to Juliet, and found her in tears.

CHAPTER X.

    Would that the dewy turf were spread
    O’er this frail form and aching head;
    That this torn heart and tortured brain
    Would never wake to grief again.—­S.M.

When Anthony entered the study next morning, he found his cousin traversing the floor in great agitation.

“Anthony, you are just the person I wanted to see.  My father is, I fear, a ruined man.”

Anthony recoiled some steps.

“It is but too true.  I have been talking to Johnstone, the steward.  The account that he gives of our affairs is most discouraging.  My father, it seems, has been living beyond his income for some years.  The estates have all been heavily mortgaged to supply the wants of the passing hour, while no provision has been made for the future by their improvident possessor.  Creditors are clamorous for their money, and there is no money to answer their demands.  Mr. Haydin, the principal mortgagee, threatens to foreclose with my father, if the interest, which has been due upon the mortgage for some years, is not instantly forthcoming.  In this desperate exigency I can only think of two expedients, both of which depend entirely upon you.”

Anthony had never questioned the state of his uncle’s affairs.  He had deemed him rich, and this distressing intelligence fell upon him with stunning violence.  He begged Godfrey to explain in what manner he could render his uncle the least assistance.

“It is not merely of my father I speak; the service is to us both, but it needs some prefacing.”

Then stepping up to the astonished Anthony, he said in a quick abrupt manner—­