“That looks awkward, Mr. Titmarsh.”

“Not a whit, sir:  he makes no disguise of the matter.  When the question is settled one way or the other, I don’t believe Mr. Brough will take any further notice of me.  But he wants me now.  This place happened to fall in just at the very moment when he had need of me; and he hopes to gain over my family through me.  He told me as much as we drove down.  ’You are a man of the world, Titmarsh,’ said he; ’you know that I don’t give you this place because you are an honest fellow, and write a good hand.  If I had a lesser bribe to offer you at the moment, I should only have given you that; but I had no choice, and gave you what was in my power.’”

“That’s fair enough; but what can make Brough so eager for such a small sum as three thousand pounds?”

“If it had been ten, sir, he would have been not a bit more eager.  You don’t know the city of London, and the passion which our great men in the share-market have for increasing their connection.  Mr. Brough, sir, would canvass and wheedle a chimney-sweep in the way of business.  See, here is poor Tidd and his twenty thousand pounds.  Our Director has taken possession of him just in the same way.  He wants all the capital he can lay his hands on.”

“Yes, and suppose he runs off with the capital?”

“Mr. Brough, of the firm of Brough and Hoff, sir?  Suppose the Bank of England runs off!  But here we are at the lodge-gate.  Let’s ask Gates, another of Mr. Brough’s victims.”  And we went in and spoke to old Gates.

“Well, Mr. Gates,” says I, beginning the matter cleverly, “you are one of my masters, you know, at the West Diddlesex yonder?”

“Yees, sure,” says old Gates, grinning.  He was a retired servant, with a large family come to him in his old age.

“May I ask you what your wages are, Mr. Gates, that you can lay by so much money, and purchase shares in our Company?”

Gates told us his wages; and when we inquired whether they were paid regularly, swore that his master was the kindest gentleman in the world:  that he had put two of his daughters into service, two of his sons to charity schools, made one apprentice, and narrated a hundred other benefits that he had received from the family.  Mrs. Brough clothed half the children; master gave them blankets and coats in winter, and soup and meat all the year round.  There never was such a generous family, sure, since the world began.

“Well, sir,” said I to the Captain, “does that satisfy you?  Mr. Brough gives to these people fifty times as much as he gains from them; and yet he makes Mr. Gates take shares in our Company.”

“Mr. Titmarsh,” says the Captain, “you are an honest fellow; and I confess your argument sounds well.  Now tell me, do you know anything about Miss Brough and her fortune?”

“Brough will leave her everything—­or says so.”  But I suppose the Captain saw some particular expression in my countenance, for he laughed and said—­